PPP: The Hen Night
★★★★☆ Excellent ensemble
Assembly Roxy: Wed 17 – Sun 21 Jun 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
The Hen Night by Debbie Hannan, the last in the current season of A Play, Pie and a Pint from Òran Mór at Assembly Roxy, is a wonderfully performed piece that is great fun as well as deceptively serious.
Jade (Dani Heron), Lilac (Laura Lovemore) and Amber (Anna Russell-Martin) are the three West Coast BFFs of Coral, whose upcoming wedding is the cause of a hen weekend. Which is bound to be great, because Jade has drawn up a spreadsheet to maximise the fun. Plus, it’s being held in ‘a funny place full of strange people and alien customs’ (that’s right, it’s Edinburgh).
Dani Heron, Laura Lovemore and Anna Russell-Martin. Pic Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
But the sudden arrival of Coral’s hitherto unmentioned Belfast cousin Luna threatens to put a damper on things. Luna doesn’t seem to be that sure that Coral’s intended Scott is right for her. And Luna should know, seeing as how she’s a human rights lawyer, poet, and international model. Yes, she’s an actual goddess…
Hannan’s writing is sharp, funny, empathetic and gloriously involving. There’s buckets of wonderful observation, plenty of righteous anger and enough momentum to stop a truck.
handbrake turn
However, there are certainly criticisms that can be levelled at the play. The heart sinks a little when this becomes yet another of those hour-long plays that suddenly takes a handbrake turn out of reality and into fantasy a third of the way through, especially since it has been getting along so well without it. Subsequently, constant switches both of character and tone always threaten to derail matters.
Dani Heron, Laura Lovemore and Anna Russell-Martin. Pic Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
That doesn’t happen, which is down to those elements of the production that are certainly beyond criticism. The ensemble are absolutely first-rate. Lovemore and Russell-Martin take turns at being Coral, signified by a simple and clever use of a two-sided Hen Night sash; they both also play other characters.
That these changes of character are not as distracting as they might be is down to the quality of the performances; Lovemore’s energy and focus is a joy to behold, while the way Russell-Martin becomes Luna as much by the movement of her shoulders as by the accent is simply brilliant.
outstanding
Heron, meanwhile, is outstanding as the needy, control-obsessed but fundamentally well-meaning Jade. She also has some marvellous audience interaction.
Dani Heron and Anna Russell-Martin. Pic Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Laila Noble’s direction is sparky and sympathetic, with Gillian Argo’s design, Ross Nurney’s lighting and Mark Gillespie’s tremendous sound design providing a very effective platform for the action.
This is a fine conclusion to the first season of Play, Pie and a Pint at the Roxy. The organisation has improved throughout, as apparently have the audiences, although the lack of accessibility for some of the traditional PPP crowd, and anyone with mobility issues, remains a real problem.
The Hen Night is certainly a high note to end on, only falling short of the highest standards because of an awkwardness in construction that the production (good as it is) can never quite overcome.
Running time: 55 minutes (no interval)
Assembly Roxy (Upstairs), 2 Roxburgh Pl, EH8 9SU
Wednesday 17 – Sunday 21 June 2026
Daily at 1pm; Thursday also at 6pm
Tickets and details: Book here.
Laura Lovemore. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
ENDS
