A PLAYWRIGHT is hoping her new drama about the phenomenon of internet dating will win the heart of audiences.

Ruby Miller channelled the confessions of friends who have run the gauntlet of cyber love to write Online Courting.

The play was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last summer and opens for its London run at the Hen and Chickens Theatre in St. Paul’s Road, Islington, this week.

The 28-year-old playwright, of Ferme Park Road, Crouch End, said: “I was sat in a pub one afternoon with friends listening to them sharing stories about the different internet dates they’d been on, all comical stories I have to say, and I just thought I have to get this onto paper.

“They were mainly about how people write something on their profile and then when they go and meet them they’ve obviously told a few white lies and a few more personal stories that do come out in the play, a few more rude things - one experience of someone having a large manhood!”

The play struck a chord with Edinburgh audiences and people flocked backstage to share their own stories about internet dating.

They included the fibs people tell in online profiles - exaggerating hobbies or height and posting out of date pictures - but it was not all heartbreak.

“The most romantic story is the people who tell you they went out on one date and they click and get married,” said Ruby. “There’s a real romance to that. I suppose it is no different to seeing someone across the room because you’re seeing them on the internet screen.”

The playwright, originally from Yorkshire, studied acting at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in Wood Green and began writing the play five years ago.

It follows the dating fortunes of two young professionals Tom and Gerry - an unintentional nod to the cat and mouse chase of love.

She also stars in the lead female role opposite James Robinson - who played the young Mel Gibson in Braveheart and auditioned for the role of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars The Phantom Menace, initially being used on storyboards for the character.

The play may reveal all about the disasters of other people’s romances, but what of Ruby’s one and only online date?

“I did go on one internet date and I have to say it was only one and it was quite comical because it entailed me falling off a chair,” she said. “I think too many wines had been consumed but that was it because I met my partner soon after in a bar.”

Online Dating is showing at the Hen and Chickens Theatre until Saturday, April 30.

Sarah Beeny’s website Mysinglefriend.com is in talks about hosting singles nights linked to the play and the TV star is expected to see the show.