Toronto Fringe Review: Unmatched

Photo by Eve Beauchamp featuring Caity Smyck

Inspired by true stories of real first dates gone wrong, Levity Theatre’s Unmatched proves true to the old adage that the path of true love never did run smooth. 

In this story of being unlucky in love, Caity Smyck plays our storyteller Drew who, through a blend of direct address to the audience, standup comedy, and vignettes, shares their complicated romantic history of bad first dates. We are introduced to an assortment of would-be suitors, all played by Eve Beauchamp. Smyck and Beauchamp share an easy chemistry on stage, and Smyck radiates a warm likeability that endears them to the audience very early into the proceedings.

A key strength of this show is the skillful balance of stories told in a past tense with a real-time conflict of Drew’s present romantic uncertainties. The production avoids a heavy-handed “show within a show” motif, and instead favours a more seamless flow between the “show” and Drew’s transparency with their present heartache.

A highlight of the show also includes Smyck’s comfort and rapport with audience interaction - particularly their efforts to figure out the right text to send to a date. While this will undoubtedly be different every night, Smyck was quite capable of negotiating how many ‘y’s to include in “hey” and the right emoji accent to place before hitting ‘send.’ 

Overall, the show is mostly lighthearted in tone (with the exception of one particularly wild encounter in a bathroom) but the production does not shy away from letting the audience in on the pangs of lonely heart.

Unmatched is on now until July 16 as part of the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival.
Find show times and tickets here.