REVIEW: Hardlove starts slow at the world famous Soho Playhouse

An interesting Fringe show, but on its own? A different story.

Ulises Ramiro

The we're-famous-now Soho Playhouse brings in show after show from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and there's not much mystery why. With the success of Fleabag and others, it only reinforces that success at Edinburgh could mean success elsewhere.

Hardlove falls into this category, a show that did well at Edinburgh and is now giving it a go in a 9pm slot at The Soho Playhouse's bar space, the Huron Club. With a $35 ticket, Hardlove is not part of any festival now, and clocking in at just 55mins, it's saying that it's a full evening.

Despite its less-than-an-hour run time, Hardlove starts slow, even with its sex-centered subject matter. The actors and director do a nice job with the tiny space, the staging of the sex scenes work well, but the intrigue is solely on the fact that two people are hooking up. There's not much else happening.

The piece eventually goes to an interesting place. At the heart of the play is a discussion about fantasy, pain, connection and violence, but the duration spent in this interesting territory is short lived. It's a piece that's nicely stylized, but the plot doesn't have too much included. The characters want something from one another, which is good, but even the positive elements have some asterisks. Wouldn't she expect a one night stand to be very off-put by her twisted fantasy about one night stands?

What's considered an evening of theater keeps getting shorter. Smash hit Oh, Mary! clocks in at just 1h 10m, but the fact remains, that's about as short as a piece can be while still being considered an evening. There are exceptions, of course, but if a piece is under an hour, it needs to fly by so fast you think it took 10 minutes.

Could Hardlove be adapted into a smash hit streaming series? I guess anything is possible. I can see why a Fringe audience would really applaud this piece. But is what's being presented a riveting night of theater when viewed within the context and ecosystem of Off and Off-Off Broadway? Not so much.