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Shotgunned

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Three stars 

 

It’s all over for Dylan and Roz at the start of Matt Anderson’s new play. Whatever happened, Dylan’s stuff is all packed up for him to collect. When he arrives, it is a frosty reception from Roz that awaits him. But how did these two former lovers get here, having one last awkward exchange before they go their very separate ways?

 

This is answered over the next sixty five minutes or so of Anderson’s own production, which cuts up a series of bite size scenes that jump between time frames to piece together a bittersweet romance that began with Dylan bumming a fag off Roz at a party. The highs and lows of the first love that follows leaves a profound sense of loss for them both as they career around each other towards the end.  

 

First seen on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe back in 2024, Anderson’s own production for his Kangaroo Court outfit and here presented with Serpentine Productions retains a DIY feel in its spare presentation. In what initially looks like the everyday fallout of first world twenty somethings, Lorna Panton as Roz and Fraser Allan Hogg as Dylan gradually get to the heart of the matter through an incident that will likely affect them forever. 

 

The fragmentary nature of Anderson’s production attempts to gradually unwrap its mystery in the way a Nicolas Roeg film might piece together the jigsaw of the couple’s lives. It ends by bringing things bang up to date as we see what Dylan and Ros did next in a show that strips back their relationship to reveal the anguish within.


The Herald, May 1st 2026

 

ends

 

 

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