Edinburgh Theatre: It's rare, and therefore all the more delightful, to see a proper romantic comedy in the theatre, of the sort that would make Richard Curtis nervous.

Yet a sassy, sophisticated example of this much-maligned genre is exactly what playwright David Greig and songwriter Gordon McIntyre have joyously concocted and, even better, they’ve set it in Edinburgh itself.

It’s Friday night of midsummer weekend and it is, of course, raining. Thirtysomethings Bob (Matthew Pidgeon) and Helena (Cora Bissett), he a Dostoevsky-reading petty criminal and she a divorce lawyer, nurse their private existential crises at separate tables in a wine bar. Drunken congress ensues, before the pair embark on the lost — or just possibly found — weekend of a lifetime.

Right from the start, as Greig mischievously rewinds the narrative to give us various versions of the pair’s first, fateful, conversation, we realise that we’ re in the presence of something very special indeed. It’s an always-inventive script, vibrant but plangent with love, life, missed chances and new possibilities, and Pidgeon, lugubrious and bewildered, and Bissett, fiery, sexy and a huge star in waiting, give it all the energy and welly it deserves. They bound enthusiastically around a playful set with its double bed dominating a space whose floor and walls resemble a board game (Game of Life, perhaps?), and also sing and play guitar with no little skill. “If my hangover was a boy, it would be you”, announces Bissett in one particularly cherishable lyric.

Greig himself directs, ensuring that the whirlwind narrative — philosophy-spouting parking meters, bondage clubs and ruined wedding days — never makes that kiss-of-death leap from quirky to infuriating. It would be a crime against theatre if London audiences don’t get to relish this wonderful distilled essence of Edinburgh as soon as possible.
Until 30 August (0131 228 1404, www.traverse.co.uk).