Written and performed by Yolanda Mercy, Failure Project is a one-woman play that focuses on Ade, a successful writer: or so it seems. Ade is ‘booked, busy and blessed’, but so much of her time is spent pitching (unpaid) ideas or making edits to scripts that she’s not entirely comfortable with. Her play Day Girl has been commissioned for a theatre run, but the director has replaced Ade with an influencer in the lead role, and her script is being mangled beyond recognition. When things start to go wrong (with the play, as in other areas of her life), Ade asks if it’s all her own fault.

The piece takes a deep dive into what it really means to be successful and what happens when we fail. Being an artist is hard. It’s especially tough when you’re working class. Even harder when you’re a working-class woman. And harder still when you’re a working-class black woman. Failure Project holds a mirror up to this reality, and there’s so much to explore here that the sub-plots about her messy situationship and grief feel like afterthoughts that aren’t fully integrated into the story. But Mercy is a warm and engaging performer, keeping the audience invested for the full 70 minutes.

Failure Project, Summerhall, until 26 August, 1.30pm; main picture: Richard Hayes.