Everyone lies sometimes, right? According to social-media consultant Alex, we should all be lying more – the world is run by some of the biggest liars out there, after all. Rachel Causer’s darkly comic play interrogates our obsession with being liked and the sea of damage it can cause. It starts innocently; Alex adds a filter here, a fake gym selfie there – but before long she’s got 27,000 followers and is addicted to the feeling. So, when her colleagues ship her off to a grief group to help her come to terms with her father’s death, there is only one way she can get through it – by lying.
Now that we can wholly curate the version of ourselves that we want the online world to see, this monologue asks what happens when self-editing is applied to a real-life situation. And performed by the irresistible Róisín Bevan, it is a very engaging hour. Whizzing from one accent and character to the next, she looks entirely comfortable in the physicality of each new person. Snapping from the grief group leader Tony’s hunched, overly interested figure back to the stiff, sarcastic Alex, she is an actor who really understands a person’s essence.
Though Causer’s script needs a tighter ending, and the run of events is hardly surprising, her dialogue is compelling. We may not hear the voice of Alex’s love interest, Tristan, but this lack of clarity only builds his mystique. Alex’s conversations with him are offset by the perfect amount of rolled-eye asides. And the audience is her friend – she talks to us like she’s revealing her sordid, hidden secrets.
Directed by Liam Blain, Bevan looks at us face-on for the most part. She is accompanied by empty chairs that form a semi-circle resembling a group meeting. It’s a very fringe setup but more could have been done to make the most of them throughout.
This is a playful piece that takes the idea of an unreliable narrator and pushes it to extremes. We might not discover who the real Alex is, but she certainly keeps you guessing.
At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 29 August.
