This Play Sucks!
★★★☆☆ Hilarious
theSpace @ Venue 45 (Venue 45): Mon 18 – Sat 23 Aug 2025
Review by Erin Frances Speirs.
This Play Sucks! is a vampiric farcical adventure, written and directed by Sean Tennant, sure to have the whole room laughing at The Space @ Venue 45 where it runs for the last week of the Fringe.
This Play Sucks! is a full-on Scottish show; full of English slander and Celtic versus Rangers rivalry, which is to say that this absurdist comedy is packed to the brim with humour.
Poster for This Play Sucks!.
Cammy (Jordan Monks) and Lee (Aidan Curley), best pals since childhood with very little going for them, venture into an old Scottish manor in an attempt to kidnap the reclusive Lord Armstrong (Alexander Donaldson) on request of ‘The Decorator’.
The two friends quickly realise their target is, in fact, a vampire. And when they lose each other they start a journey to be reunited that twists and turns through the enchanted estate. Their story intertwines with that of the vampire and his daughter Moira (Jenny McDougall) who have been separated within the same walls for over eighty years.
The energy of This Play Sucks! is unmatched. The cast perform with roaring vigour and animation. Curley shines with perfect comedic timing as Lee, an endearing Glaswegian idiot and wannabe lover boy. Monks’ Cammy is spirited with strong physical comedy. Which can also be said for Donaldson’s vampire, who finds himself being shot at numerous times throughout the play and managing to create a unique and entertaining way of falling to the floor each time.
Scott Milliken is used only for the occasional moment of humour as Uncle Jamie, a vampire gone mad. Although having no spoken dialogue, Milliken embodies Uncle Jamie with chaotic charm. Uncle Jamie inclusion can be questioned due to his overall lack of relevance in the plot. Creating a larger Armstrong family does benefit the play’s emotional weight, but is not really needed for a small production.
high energy
Leah Neill is only featured in the last moments of the production as Clara Net the Irish mob boss known as ‘The Decorator’, when she helps feed the audience the final pieces of information needed to wind the play up. Neill’s performance is high energy, as she swings a machine gun around with confidence, however she suffers the same fate as Uncle Jamie with very little stage time.
None of the characters in This Play Sucks! have much depth, apart from some heavy-handed emotional monologues given near the end. The caricatures fit the genre, pace and length of the play, however, and are performed brilliantly by the actors.
However, the lack of depth is a particular problem with Moira, Lord Armstrong’s goth vampire daughter. McDougall performs the character as written with playful force and charm; however, this does come across as one-note at times due to her being portrayed as simply a “goth vampire chick”.
Moira is supposed to be powerful, sexy, and strong-willed, as detailed throughout the play, but at the same time she happily follows along with anything Lee asks of her for the sake of plot progression.
This Play Sucks! begins to meander nearing its conclusion. Too much time is spent on long emotional monologues, in contrast to the energetic tone previously. This is disappointing, since the first forty minutes is a witty, action-packed rollercoaster.
However, with visual and verbal gags coming a mile a minute, ceilidh tunes and a big dose of Scottish culture, This Play Sucks! far from sucks.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
theSpace @ Venue 45, 63 Jeffrey Street, EH1 1DH (Venue 45).
Monday 18 – Saturday 23 August 2025.
Daily: 7.40pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Facebook: @ThisPlaySucks
Instagram: @thisplaysucks
More information about donating blood is here: www.scotblood.co.uk.
The cast of This Play Sucks! promote the national transfusion service. Scot Blood.
ENDS
