As the Magnetic Fields demonstrated with a celebrated album, the subject of love can be approached from countless directions. Sketch duo and real-life couple Ada Player and Bron Waugh have a similarly multifaceted outlook to affairs of the heart from a comedy perspective, with spectacular, and wonderfully weird, results.

Sometimes heartfelt, sometimes twisted, sometimes soulful, sometimes disgusting, the only constant to Ada and Bron’s wildly diverse creative energy is that every sketch looks at love through a skewed Dutch angle, the more warped the better. The incredibly talented pair make extravagant use of their considerable acting and comedic skills in the manner of the most sympatico couples. Both are individually brilliant performers working in harmony and the quality of their writing is just as strong.

The Pleasance Attic is the same room in which Lorna Rose Treen made such an impression in 2023 with ‘Skin Pigeon‘, and ‘The Origin of Love’ has that same restless inventiveness and surreal energy. Ada and Bron may have self-imposed some theoretical limitations with the running theme of love and romance, but as with ‘Skin Pigeon’ it’s impossible to predict or second guess the direction in which any given sketch is going to hurtle.

Highlights include a declaration of love that takes a scatological turn, a delightful interlude between two star-crossed Nordic cowherds, and an excruciating threesome that sees Ada gamely playing both female participants. The pair are also unafraid to take a wild tonal shift, with Ada delivering an utterly heart-rending tragicomic monologue, a bold move that wouldn’t work if the level of performance wasn’t top notch.

There are a couple of sketches that simply end instead of concluding on a specific punchline, but it’s all performed with such demented gusto that there is absolutely no breakdown in the relentless pace. This is also partly down to the third member of the duo (it makes sense on stage), Ed Lyness, who acts as an alternative focal point while the couple are offstage hopping into their various costumes. The tall, chiselled keyboardist brings a neat line in dextrous musical interludes and the air of a slightly sinister ringmaster, which works splendidly in Ada and Bron’s off-kilter universe.

Despite those moments that get by purely on sheer oddball charisma and breakneck momentum, ‘The Origin of Love’ is a consistently exhilarating and fantastically-performed hour of sketch magic that will appeal to incorrigible romantics and the irreparably lovelorn alike. See them as early in the run as you can, available seats are going to be like hen’s teeth come the festival’s end. There’s something strange and wonderful in the air in that Attic.

‘The Origin of Love‘ is at Pleasance Courtyard – Attic until Sun 24 Aug 2025 at 23:00