Assembly George Square
Four stars
Liane is angry in Corinne Salisbury’s new solo play, which looks at the murky extremes of what we now call toxic masculinity. Liane’s anger is understandable. One minute she’s taking a walk in the park after her Pilates class and trying to figure out how her primary school age daughter can deal with playground bully boys. The next she’s fending off the overtures of a fedora sporting stranger in broad daylight. Once she starts digging, the man who accosted her turns out to have a very disturbing history approaching women uninvited. Even worse, he’s not alone in his everyday abuse, but is part of an organised alliance that plans their moves and shares their every action.
One of Liane’s responses to this in Salisbury’s punchy monologue is to enrol her and her daughter Molly in a boxing class run by her brother’s ex, Nathalie. Forming an alliance with Molly’s best friend’s mum Angela, the trio become a force to be reckoned with as they uncover the secret network lurking in the darkest corners of the Internet. Woe betide fedora man as the trio’s actions go viral, but there are even more troubling home truths hiding in plain sight.
The currency of Salisbury’s script in terms of the need to protect women and girls from predatory men cannot be understated in Jo Rush’s production for the Edinburgh based Rupture Theatre company. Brought to full furious life by Zoë Hunter as Liane, the result is an urgent dispatch from a world that questions how to stand up to abuse when the authorities let you down.
Until Aug 30.
The Herald, August 23, 2026
Ends
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