Summerhall
Three stars
When Oscar and Ela go on a drunken bender with their pals Syd and Quinn, what starts out as a mixture of sparring and flirting in Emmeline Hartley and Jack Mullings’ new play ends up as a full on night of… well, what exactly was it? The awkward morning after the night before doesn’t provide any easy answers. Only when Oscar and Ela get trapped in a lift together do they try and work out not only what did or didn’t happen, but what should, and more significantly what very much shouldn’t have.
Hartley and Mullings navigate the post MeToo age with an incisive cut and thrust between Oscar and Ella. This has clearly been born from a lot of late night discussions that have been fed into Hartley and Mullings’ collaboration.
Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s busy production starts out resembling some hedonistic shagfest before developing to highlight an infinitely more serious study of responsibility and accountability in one night sexual encounters. This makes for a vital dramatic debate in a show given an extra edge by having its writers also play the lead non-couple. Ably supported by Emma Houston and Tessa Redman as Syd and Quinn, this sees the play jump back and forth between events to gradually reveal the truth of what actually went on.
Despite the production’s rough edges, Hartley, Mullings and Ingrouille dig into some of the complexities and contradictions at play without resorting to platitudes, but which isn’t afraid to say the unsayable. This is clear from some of the gasps from the audience at points in an intelligent and wilfully provocative production.
Until 31 Aug, 6pm.
The Herald, August 15, 2026
ends
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