Moonswing
★★★★☆ Heartfelt
Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16): Mon 11 – Sat 23 Aug 2025
Review by Salvador Kent
Simply Surreal revive their debut play Moonswing to celebrate ten years as a company. Playing at Greenside’s Riddles Court this is a coherent, touching play with a trio of consummate performances and some subtly powerful stage images.
To begin, it concerns three children Lucy, Leanne and Richard – who meet on a hill with a bench and look at the moon, imagining what it would be like to live there.
Shannon Davidson (Leanne). Pic: e117media.
The play jumps to various different points in their lives, moving chronologically through their adolescence, early 20s and ends in their 30s as their relationships shift. Leanne and Richard are half-siblings. Lucy and Richard have a will-they-won’t-they relationship. The moon is a constant metaphor.
It is a rather simple conceit, but executed well enough so the play more than justifies its own existence. The characters are sketched by writer Dougal Thomson with considerable skill; their vocabulary shifting and growing as they grow older and all handled with a subtle intelligence.
The three central performances from Abbie Robertson (Lucy) Shannon Davidson (Leanne) and Jack Mailer (Richard) help this hugely. They convince as three excitable children and grow into subtle, slightly wounded but very human adults.
recurring motif
Lisa McDonald directs with subtlety but power. An umbrella is a recurring motif, held in transition by whoever seems to be the focal point of the next scene. The stage is dynamic without falling into the “I’m standing up for no reason” trope this heightened naturalistic theatre too often falls into.
This is a carefully constructed work, which has moments of real tenderness. A voiceover (sometimes played by Jack Reid Borland, other times by the cast) interjects in transitions as a voice of inner life. This is a simple, but rich stage; managed with ease and flair.
Abbie Robertson (Lucy). Pic: e117media.
The play handles the delicate theme of neurodivergence with subtlety. Neurodivergence is not a plot point, rather a fact for one of the characters. It is clear a lot of time and care went into plotting the trajectory of how this neurodivergence manifests throughout the characters life, and this is evident and quite moving as a whole portrait.
Perhaps the plays ending is a little too beyond belief – an unexpected plot twist that feels like too obvious a trope. Whilst it does develop the characters’ relationships, there may have been a more intelligent way to resolve, or leave unresolved, the loose threads at the end of this story.
The play’s register is also sometimes a little grating – the moon metaphor is overwrought, and sometimes the aphorisms feel like an easy way to dismiss the uncomfortable truths the play exposes.
richly drawn performances
The play does feel like a product from ten years ago – but this works to its strength. This is an example of the mid-2010s school of British Theatre, nurtured on the strong stories and specific physicalities of companies like Frantic Assembly.
In this work – this register is expertly done. Three compelling, richly drawn performances. Subtle, intelligent direction. And writing that despite its flaws is beautifully earnest. Moonswing ultimately ends up being a very moving piece of theatre, technically compelling and heartfelt.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Venue (Willow Studio), ADDRESS (Venue #).
Monday 18 – Saturday 23 August 2025.
Daily (Not Sun 17): 4.15pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Facebook: @SimplySurreall
Instagram: @simplyysurreall
Linktree: @simplysurreal
Jack Mailer (Richard). Pic: e117media.
ENDS
