Looking for meaning in the transitory connections with people we’re attracted to may seem an utterly foolish exercise. Looking For Giants is convinced that this act of self-searching is less about the outcome and more about the experience. Cesca Echlin’s debut play is a trifecta of monologues performed by Abby McCann, each built around a nameless character’s perception of men who excite, frustrate and compel her.

This is not a play about men, but the lens one woman looks at them through. Our speaker talks in the third person throughout (making her testimony feel both confessional and invasive) as she walks a shifting, conflicted path of sexual identity and self-realisation. Echlin’s writing is sharply observed and McCann’s performance is fearless; together, their work is entrancing. McCann’s expressive agility keeps the rhythm of Echlin’s script electric throughout, no matter how vulnerable or assertive that writing asks her to be.

The final monologue pales in comparison to the gripping first two, feeling more inert than what we’ve already seen, but Echlin still closes the play on a poignant note of (self-directed?) romance. Some may think its scope is too slight, but Looking For Giants artfully breaks open a whole world of feeling. 

Looking For Giants, Underbelly Cowgate, until 13 August, 2.35pm.