Is intimacy dead? Should we listen to our mothers? Is the modern feminist an attention wh*re? These are all questions Hannah Reilly does not shy away from in her haunting and hilarious one-woman performance ROLEPLAY.
With the name Francesca Moody (Fleabag, Baby Reindeer) attached to it, I worried the play had been branded a predestined hit without the substance to back it up. Squished into the TechCube at Summerhall any fears of disappointment vanished in the face of Reilly’s brazen examination of modern sex punctuated with the sharpest self-depricating comedy.
ROLEPLAY follows feminist podcaster Danni as she attempts to impress a big-shot producer who promises fame and fortune if only she sexes-up the podcast a little. We watch as Danni, a romantic at heart, dives headfirst into the kinkiest corners of the internet.
But Reilly goes beyond the typical vapid characterisation of the glazed eyed OnlyFans model (Sam Levinson I’m looking at you!). Though the show opens with a strip show to blaring sex-techno, the theatrics let up to reveal an awkward and essentially vanilla protagonist. Danni is a character we root for, ripping the mask off the Bonnie Blue type hustler and exposing the fallible woman behind.
The performance is carried out with spectacular fluidity; in a kind of fusion between standup and theatre Reilly moves seamlessly between ‘slutfluencer’ Danni, bereaved sex dungeon master, and performative male Leo. Whilst the audience is left belly-laughing at Danni’s cringworthy sexual endeavors, we hardly notice the extent of her exploitation or the collapse of her interpersonal relationships until it’s too late.
ROLEPLAY is unafraid to look at the modern feminist and ask, did we get it wrong? Have we taken the liberties given to us by the sexual revolution and passed them back to the patriarchy? Namely, Reilly interrogates the freedom to profit off male desire; a liberty that seems to solely benefit men trickling down only to ruin sex for the young women at the bottom. This clash between eras of feminism is brilliantly encapsulated in a mother daughter relationship that goes to the emotional heart of the production and is familiar to any woman whose mother has ever told them off for wearing a low cut top.
A much needed reminder that the scales are always titled even under choice feminism and undoubtedly the must-see show this Fringe, ROLEPLAY lives up to all the hype.
ROLEPLAY is running until 31 August at TechCube 0 Summerhall. Buy tickets here.
Image by Gracie Steindl, provided for press use.
