Lover on the Radio Is Fascinating, But Main Elements Don’t Quite Tie Together (Fringe review) 3 Stars ***

Armenian-American artist Gayané Kaligian is manning three phone lines. One is a late night radio phone in, the second a religious doubt hotline, and the third a sex service running – all are running off the same operator. If that sounds confusing, then there’s an element of that throughout the performance. 

Switching between all three has you going from the Catholic run support service for people searching for God, then onto the sex line, searching for something where you shout God at the top of your voice and in between is the more spiritual homeliness of bringing people home as they drive through the night or struggle to sleep. 

It is sometimes difficult to unpick. Whilst Pilligan is a real presence onstage, who keeps the whole thing together, it requires trimming or a separation to get the point. There are elements of this which are really interesting including how our protagonist’s relationship to all three versions of herself and roles and responsibilities grows. You don’t always, however, get the connection of all three and what the purpose to point may be. The conversations veer from a male abuser on the sex line looking to get off and save his spouse pain, to a mother looking to change their daughter and mould them into the version they want. That juxtaposition takes a little time to sink in. 

This production has been directed with the space in mind, so we have a single desk and the phone voices coming from stage left, in the wings. I wanted to know more back story and find out more about the people on the phone lines which left me frustrated but questioning what they might be after. To an extent that works well. By the end of it you just got the sense that somebody was fed up doing the three jobs without knowing when they were doing it. 

I’m not sure why the 45s were onstage except to suggest music as it was a digital radio station, but they gave context. 

Lover on the Radio is a real, blurring, unravelling, fascinating take on modern society. There is objectification, and having a sex line at the same place as a Catholic supported advice line is interesting. It has something original to say but could have been expanded, connecting all three functions together and using the protagonist to make more of a commentary would have elevated the whole thing. 

Lover on the Radio is at Paradise in the Vaults until 30th August

Review date: Friday 28^th August 2026