Roleplay - Edinburgh Fringe 2026

Roleplay

A polished, provocative production that knows its territory but ultimately doesn't take us anywhere particularly new.

Hannah Reilly is an engaging performer. There is real confidence and theatrical intelligence in the way she inhabits Roleplay, a show that takes aim at feminism, sexual performance, influencer culture and the increasingly slippery line between self-expression and self-commodification.

Its premise is promising. Danni, a broke feminist podcaster, decides that earnest feminism isn't getting her anywhere and reinvents herself as a provocative “slutfluencer”, turning sex, sexuality and her own identity into content. What follows is a journey through the contradictions of empowerment, exploitation, attention and the commercialisation of the self.

It's fertile territory. The problem is that it feels increasingly well worn.

Paige Rattray directs a polished, assured production that knows exactly how to pace its reveals and keep the audience engaged. David Fleischer's set and costume design gives the piece a strong visual identity, while Prema Mehta's lighting and Lucy Baker-Swinburn's sound create a slick, highly controlled theatrical world. Betty Grumble's choreography adds another layer to a show deeply interested in the performance and commodification of the body.And the producing muscle is considerable. Francesca Moody Productions and Global Creatures have assembled a formidable creative team, and the professionalism of the production is never in doubt.

Which makes my reservations about the material rather than the execution itself.

Roleplay is very well made. Reilly has an engaging voice and a strong stage presence, and the production knows how to use humour, provocation and sexual spectacle to generate an immediate theatrical charge.

But ultimately, I kept asking: do I care?

Not because the questions aren't important. They are. But because the show doesn't quite take them far enough. We already know that social media turns identity into a commodity. We know that sexual empowerment can be simultaneously liberating and commercially exploitative. We know that feminism itself can be packaged, branded and sold. Roleplay articulates these contradictions clearly but rarely makes us see them differently.

There is also an uncomfortable irony in the audience itself. A sizeable contingent appeared to be older men, and one can't help wondering how much the promise of partial nudity and a woman in very brief underwear forms part of the appeal. That isn't necessarily the show's fault but it creates precisely the contradiction the work is interested in. Is the audience consuming a critique of sexual commodification, or simply consuming the commodity?

And that may be the most interesting question Roleplay accidentally raises about itself.

But for all its apparent disruption, the material ultimately feels more like a highly accomplished repackaging of a familiar argument.

The territory is provocative. The performance is engaging. The production is polished. But by the end, I wasn't convinced we'd discovered anything new.

Review by Kate Gaul

Image by Mihaela Bodlovic