EDFRINGE REVIEW: I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not (Red Firefly Theatre)

I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not – ★★★★☆ – Mayhem

Red Firefly Theatre
20-26 Aug
Review by Rebecca Mahar
 
Red Firefly Theatre debuts on the Fringe with I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not, a rapid-fire hour of Shakespeare’s greatest lovers’ hits, featuring able classical performance couched in an absurd frame. 

Gabriel Bird and Jenna Donoghue star as Isaac McKellen and Julie Dench, RADA (Regular Academy of Decent Actors) trained thespians who are desperately and soporiphically in love and have determined that the secret to their romantic success is their mutual love of Shakespeare, which has made their relationship “objectively better than anybody elses!”. To that end, they’ve decided to share with the audience the “dos and do nots” of a successful relationship through various scenes of Shakespeare. McKellen prepares to launch into a tragedy, and the image of the perfect relationship breaks down immediately as Dench protests repeatedly that they had agreed to begin with a comedy, until McKellen bellows “Enough!” and the scene segues instantly into act 1, scene 7 of Macbeth, to the dinging of a bell.

Gabriel Bird and Jenna Donoghue in a scene from I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not. Pic: Red Firefly.

Such a beginning clearly establishes that McKellen and Dench’s relationship is not nearly so amiable as they imagine, setting the stage for further such comedy, and demonstrates that this is not going to just be a medley of the romantic ideals— dos and don’ts will certainly be present. The opening promised tragedies, comedies, and even “the ones no one cares about” (the histories), and the show delivers on its promises.

Bird and Donoghue clip from scene to scene with remarkable speed, transitioning from one to the other with slick segues in dialogue, physicality, or both, always accompanied by the aural signal of the bell. The scenes are clearly defined, and as clearly characterised as can be with minimal context, though Donoghue sometimes loses distinction of character in the early scenes in favour of the speed of her dialogue, though it is admirably enunciated. Both actors deliver excellent and collaborative physical performances, with this particularly shining in the comedy aspect: their Helena and Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) scene is a treat to watch.
 
Gabriel Bird and Jenna Donoghue in a scene from I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not. Pic: Red Firefly.

Some of the selections are predictably, and rightly, included, such as the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet, in which Bird is a bounding puppy of a Romeo, engaging in fully committed crowd work as well as breathless adoration of Donoghue’s delightful Juliet. Other selections are less obvious, and wink back at the cheeky introduction of the histories, when Maragaret and Suffolk of Henry VI, Part 1 appear in a beautiful and undervalued romantic scene from this lesser-performed three part history. 
 
As the medley progresses, the transitions between scenes come more quickly and change more rapidly, leading to a climax of McKellen and Dench breaking through their respective characters in a hilarious finale to their lessons on a successful relationship. The prolonged absence of McKellen and Dench is the major weakness of I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not as a play: their bookends are marvellous, but because we spend so much time without then peeping through, the thread of the framing device becomes a bit lost. That’s not to say they need to appear between every scene, but there is likely a way to incorporate their story —the justification for this entire medley— in a more dramatically meaningful fashion.
 
I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not is a delightful, highly entertaining hour of Shakespearean madness, which packs a great deal of clarity and understanding of text into a very short time, with its performers maintaining incredible energy and commitment throughout. If you weren’t a fan of Shakespeare going in, you will be coming out.
 
Running time: One hour with no interval
Venue: The Speakeasy at the Royal Scots Club (Venue 241a), 29-31 Abercromby Place EH3 6QE
20-26 August 2026 
Time: 2:30pm
Tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/i-love-thee-i-love-thee-not

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