Writer: Rachel Isobel Heritage
Director: Saffron Woolven
The music that introduces Jealousy Play is chosen to reflect the theme. The playlist includes Obsessed by Olivia Rodrigo, a song about a frustrating cycle of fixation and corrosive levels of compulsion, which parallels the confessional drama of Rachel Isobel Heritage’s raw, emotionally honest play. Heritage plays Joanne Smith, an angst-ridden, autistic drama lover with an unsupportive single parent. Her envy of implausibly successful fellow student Neptune Roberts is a solipsistic Insta-reel of green-eyed rage.
The tale of Joanne’s erratic acting career and turbulent personal life has some interesting moments: the bitterness of covid-era students deprived of in-person training, an autistic meltdown over a trivial item out of place at the end of a stressful day, a trip to the National Theatre at night. Heritage is an engaging performer, convincing and heartbreakingly vulnerable. Her slightly monotonal script could do with more moments of comedy to balance the bleakness.
A Gen Z openness and tendency to overthink things are hallmarks of this zeitgeisty monologue. There are references back to Tumblr and Emo music and the era of The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime. “Oh look! It’s a one-woman show about Daddy issues – how original!” Heritage quips early on. This vein of humour is soon subsumed in angst, but the show remains unrelentingly self-referential: a play by an aspiring actor and writer about an aspiring actor who writes plays. Directed by Saffron Woolven, Heritage makes this circular story watchable and compelling. One of the drama school scenes involves Joanne performing Helena’s soliloquy from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “How happy some o’er other some can be…” It’s an apt speech about jealousy and the bitterness of a rival’s undeserved success.
The intimate set consists of a desk and a slideshow of photos. Lime green, colour of jealousy, becomes a brand, visible in Joanne’s vest, tracksuit stripes, screensaver. There are voiceovers from several other actors, playing Joanne’s father, boyfriend, Neptune, and various drama coaches. Heritage founded Jealousy Play’s production company Lockdown Projections in 2020, a “neurodivergent-led” theatre group, running workshops, cabarets, networking events. It will be interesting to see this talented performer and her team tackle other texts and themes.
Reviewed on 24 July 2026 and then at Edinburgh Fringe
