Playwright and performer Isabelle Blanche has her finger very firmly on several pulses with this new solo show. AI swallowing up creative jobs, the gig economy, dating culture and having to house-share with a psycho means her character Cassie gets plenty of knowing chuckles and nods of recognition from the audience. But that’s all put firmly in the shade by what Blanche identifies as the real scourge of the modern age (especially for the wearily cynical): positive mental attitude. 

In years to come, they’ll study the impact of the victim blaming inherent in telling anyone going through redundancy, ghosting or mean girl behaviour to ‘reframe their mindset’; Blanche’s script is at its strongest when it skewers the wall-to-wall relentless positivity of PMA culture. She also uses voiceover to good effect, successfully expanding the necessarily limited world of the solo show to bring in other characters and set-ups. The episodic nature of the script, which flips from situation to situation, doesn’t allow Cassie to fully build on the anger that’s bubbling away just underneath the surface. But this is a promising exploration of what happens when you allow the cracks to finally shatter, just a little bit.

Shatter Resistant, Greenside George Street, until 29 August, 4.05pm; picture: Hilary Elliott.

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