Digital Love

There’s no doubt about it; we live in a virtual generation. But have email, Facebook, texting, Twitter etc. really isolated and destroyed romantic correspondence? This new BBC Radio 4 drama, ‘Love Virtually’ tackles this very issue. It’s a brilliantly captivating and romantic 45-minute piece written by Austrian novelist Daniel Glattauer, and takes the form of a modern epistolary novel following our two protagonists, Emmi Rothner and Leo Leike, played by Amelia Fox and David Tennant.

It’s a typical love story and it has been done thousands upon thousands of times. But how to make it new? How can we modernise the love while retaining the much loved traditional giddiness, drama and romance? Answer: emails.

When Emmi sends an email requesting to end a magazine subscription to Leo by mistake, a romance ensues over the period of a year that allows the couple to act out a relationship fuelled by the tantalising possibilities of a face-to-face meeting. A deeper connection seems to unfold as both characters open their hearts to the other, and despite Emmi being happily married, she reveals more about her character to Leo than to her husband, Bernard.
The characters are fantastic, and also are expertly acted by Fox and Tennant. Leo is a smooth and charming academic whose witty and intelligent responses to Emmi make her fall for him quickly. The agonising dilemma is the fact that Emmi is married with a couple of step children. As Leo and Emmi’s emails continue, discussion of a potential meet up inevitably develop, with both desperate to see what the other looks like. As they engage in this virtual affair, their flirty and curious exchanges feel very realistic and it definitely leaves listeners guessing how this ‘relationship’ will conclude. I won’t spoil the ending on here, but I can guarantee that the unexpected yet inevitable conclusion is both beautiful and jarring.
The lack of face-to-face communication allows for a greater degree of intimacy between two people which does not exist anywhere else. Glattauer, the original writer, cleverly crafts this relationship around their emails alone. There is no narrative in the book or in the radio play and rarely do we meet other characters, except through Leo and Emmi’s perception of them. The emails begin to take on a stream of consciousness form and the listeners are able to enjoy the exciting tango of two people falling for each other. 

The format lends itself brilliantly to a radio drama and I have to congratulate both actors for their vocal perfection. David Tennant in particular, once again proves himself an extremely talented actor, worthy of many awards and recognition for so much more than simply the 10th incarnation of the Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. Tennant has the ability to portray a deep wealth of emotion out of a phrase or a mere couple of words with a delicate subtly of tone. 
I won’t spoil Love Virtually further for you, but I urge you to listen to this radio play on Youtube or podcast. My attention was held throughout, I was absorbed by the development of these two characters, and I’m definitely going to read the original book.