EdFringe Review: ROLEPLAY

Few theatrical debuts arrive in Edinburgh carrying the weight of expectation attached to Hannah Reilly’s ROLEPLAY. Co-produced by Francesca Moody—the producer behind Fringe-to-screen juggernauts Fleabag and Baby Reindeer—alongside Global Creatures, the solo show sold out its Summerhall run well before opening night. So, does this fiercely contemporary satire, examining what happens when intimate human experience is transmuted into digital capital, live up to expectations?

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Drawing heavily on Reilly’s real-world background as a podcaster, the material is semi-autobiographical. She cheekily warns us early on that while some of it is true and some is made up, the rest is none of our f*cking business. The narrative follows Danni, a struggling podcaster who greets her modest listener base with “hey slut.” Her broadcasts initially function as a genuine, slightly quirky exploration of sex positivity.

Her story takes off when a major American network offers a lucrative contract, subject to one caveat: she must rapidly expand her audience by 100,000 subscribers every month. Egged on by her bosses and seeking immediate momentum, Danni rebrands as an uninhibited “slutfluencer”—operating somewhere between an OnlyFans creator and an unfiltered Carrie Bradshaw, casting herself into viral outrage to feed an insatiable content machine.

This pivot creates fractures in her personal life. Danni’s mother, a former foreign correspondent representing an older era of boardroom feminism, watches in horror as her daughter builds an identity around male gratification. Caught in her personal doom loop, Danni promptly samples her mother’s frantic voicemails, remixing them into viral content. It’s a little bleak, but undeniably funny.

Algorithmic Obsession and Narrative Friction

Under Paige Rattray’s kinetic direction, the production translates the non-stop grind of social media making onto the stage with palpable energy. Reilly commands the space, moving between a battery of standing microphones and making live costume changes part of the action as she fills out Danni’s frantic world. She seamlessly adopts the voices of corporate executives, dungeon masters, and a posh but questionable love interest. Lucy Baker-Swinburn’s sound design amplifies this claustrophobic environment, layering remixed audio and heavy beats over the performance.

Reilly’s performance is physically fearless, kicking off the show with an erotic dance routine where she strips to a thunderous soundtrack—jolting the audience out of their comfort zone. Yet a friction emerges between the show’s sensationalised premise and its execution. Rather than delivering raw, dangerous titillation, these sequences are staged with a glossy, almost clinical polish, perhaps echoing the curated aesthetic of a social media feed. It helps underscore Danni’s internal crisis as a closet romantic forcing herself through hollow, transactional encounters while rationalising that earlier generations of feminists fought for her right to be this free.

She might gesture for the audience to holler when she’s in action, but if we do, what are we being complicit in? The play certainly conjures a smart, philosophical quandary to trap us in.

So it’s a pity that the show stumbles somewhat in its final act. As Danni’s life spirals out of control, the script veers away from its sharp, grounded social observation and slips into darker, melodrama-adjacent psychological thriller territory. This tonal shift feels somewhat forced, sacrificing a tight, often hilarious, but very human critique of modern attention economies for a far more conventional, chaotic breakdown. Sound and fury have a place in the theatre, but as embellishments of good storytelling, not substitutes.

Yet, even if it doesn’t quite stick the landing, ROLEPLAY probably still has the bones for a decent stage-to-screen transition. It’s no better or worse than several other strong, yet imperfect offerings at this year’s Fringe that could do likewise. None of them is the next Fleabag, and thank goodness for that! The point of the Fringe is to find something new.

Overall, ROLEPLAY is a sharp, highly articulate satire. Driven by Reilly’s compelling stage presence and a script brimming with incisive observation, it offers a deeply engaging investigation into the hidden costs of living out loud for an audience of online strangers.

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