Danni works at a radio station for slightly slimy boss, Jason. In her scraps of spare time, she uses their kit to start recording a podcast. She has a few followers who like her feminist chat. One day, the station owner gets wind of her podcast and thinks it could become a big hit – if she can meet their demanding targets. And so she’s precipitated into a maelstrom of efforts to attract attention – with devastating consequences.

Roleplay by Hannah Reilly is a smart, funny solo show about one woman’s quest for success. Striving to capitalise on her sex and sexuality, striving to reclaim the word ‘slut’ where plenty before her have failed, she starts out seeking salacious stories for her podcast to shine a light on power imbalances and winds up becoming the story herself – though maybe that was what the big boss wanted all along.

Reilly’s script is brilliantly economical, covering an enormous amount of ground in this gripping seventy minutes.  Relishing her independence and relishing her moment in the sun, Danni excels at overlooking problems, artlessly batting away all warning signs before they’re even out of her mouth. She serves up a magnetic performance, exuberant in her belief in her own empowerment, even when she’s standing nearly naked in front of us. We can predict her downfall but her down-to-earth wit and  shreds of self-awareness maintain empathy even as her dreams become more and more bombastic.

Director Paige Rattray wrings all the complex nuances from the script, exploring sex, power, abuse of that power and sexual assault with snappy style. Reilly’s character is confident, captivating and self-assured, craving someone who really cares for her but simultaneously pushing away the people who care most, naïvely blinded by the prospect of attention. Roleplay asks what constitutes personal freedom when other people are pulling all the strings?

Returns only for the rest of the run.

ROLEPLAY is at TechCube 0 at Summerhall until Mon 31 Aug 2026