I’ve lost count of how many new female monologues have been called the “next Fleabag”. Really. But sometimes, just sometimes, this hype might be true. I travel in hope. And this show certainly has hype: the publicity starts with an exclamation: “Hey slut!” Really. After its sell-out success at Edinburgh earlier this year, where it featured in the Top Picks of the Telegraph, Guardian and Time Out, Hannah Reilly’s Roleplay, now at the Soho Theatre in London, looks set to attract yet more praise. Really. I mean, it comes from the producers of Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, in a joint venture by Francesca Moody and Global Creatures, so it really does feel like a hit. But really?
Written and performed by Reilly, an Australian satirist and comedian, this 70-minute one-woman show starts with a gasp as she jumps on stage, topless, and grinds away to a blast of disco beats. 👙 Flipping on some clothes, she introduces her 29-year-old character, Danni, 👩 the sex-positive podcast host whose typical greeting is, yes, you guessed, “Hey slut!” Her boss Jason is sexist, 👎 joking that she’s a “diversity hire”, and then attempts to sell her verbal talents 🤩 to an American media corporation, Playback, 🎥 whose boss Henry is likewise unsubtly masculinist. What he wants is a “slutfluencer” — and 100,000 new subscribers a month. 🥺
So Danni, who has a posh boyfriend named Leo, gets into the role play of being a sexual adventurer, visiting a suburban BDSM dungeon 👹 , participating in a ketamine-enhanced strip show 👅 and finally crashing to the ground at a Sydney Opera House event. Along the way, she gets some initial support from Renee, her best friend, 💛 some less generous response from her mother, a feminist boomer ✊ who is skeptical about online dating and digital fame, 🌟 and some tricky moments with a female stalker. 🫣 Above all, Danni discovers that playing such an intimate role 🍑 is not easy, unless you take lots of drugs and drink lots of, well, drink. 🍸
When the inevitable comedown, well, comes, there’s a sense that the double-meanings and posturings are exhausted, and the sudden more serious turn of the show is much too little, and much too late. The emotional fuel of bad sex and lack of consent has been blotted out by the jokes and the laughs and the energy of the comedy. So while there’s nothing wrong with examining the way sex is turned into a commodity in a specific digital context, this is a rather unbalanced show, with too little plot, too little characterization and too little exploration of the subject’s darkness. As a morality tale, it is trite and mind-numbing in its banality; as a report from sociological research it lacks credibility and real-world detail. There’s a big hole in it called humanity. So no, it’s not the new Fleabag; and no, it’s not the new Baby Reindeer either.
This means that the issues that do surface during the show, such as the lack of arrests in the Epstein case, the gradual dissipation of the #MeToo movement or the question of who gives consent to have their voice or image splashed across the internet, pop up like notifications, then rapidly vanish. At one moment a sex worker make the powerful point that her job is “Quick money; not easy money.” Then nothing more. Vanished. It would be great to see a play that examines our attraction to the branding of ourselves, the selling of unsexy sex and our need for connection in an age when everyone spends too much time on their phones (including me). But, sadly, Roleplay is not that show.
Still, director Paige Rattray’s production is vividly high definition in its use of lighting (Prema Mehta) and sound (Lucy Baker-Swinburn), while designer David Fleischer provides a set which is full of microphones, cables and sound effects panels. Reilly has an engaging personality, and swaps between mics as she plays all the characters in the story, such as it is. She has a good stage presence and energy, and, knowing that some aspects of the play are semi-autobiographical, means you have to respect her bravery. At the same time, there’s something a bit too saccharine, and throwaway, about Danni’s belief in love ❤️! Yes, really. Or should that be “actually”?
- Roleplay is at Soho Theatre until 21 November.
This post was written by the author in their personal capacity.The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of The Theatre Times, their staff or collaborators.
This post was written by Aleks Sierz.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.