Home / Arts and Entertainment / No Touch, All Heart: A Love Story's Game
No Touch, All Heart: A Love Story's Game
20 Jun
Summary
- Students agree never to touch, ending their relationship if they do.
- The play explores deferred gratification versus instinctual desire.
- Actors maintain precise choreography, narrowly avoiding contact.
At Pitlochry Festival Theatre, a new romantic comedy by Douglas Maxwell presents a unique premise: a couple sustains a relationship without any physical contact. Meeting in 1995, two students, Robin and Iris, agree their erotic connection will end if they ever touch. This rule dictates their lives as they are portrayed from their youth into adulthood.
Robin, initially shy, becomes an emotionally repressed chief sheriff officer, dedicated solely to his work. Iris, a spontaneous art writer, drifts through life, eventually encountering a middle-aged Robin at a sheriff court. The play questions the value of deferred gratification versus surrendering to impulse, highlighting that wisdom often comes from mistakes.
Sally Reid's production features actors weaving with remarkable precision, constantly on the verge of touching but never doing so. This theatrical game culminates in an inevitable moment, providing a clear answer to the play's central question and eliciting an emotional response from the audience. The narrative also cleverly dramatizes generational differences through younger characters attempting to guide the older ones.
