Writer and Director: Veronica Montalbetti
Previewing at the Bread & Roses Theatre before it goes to Edinburgh is Veronica Montalbetti’s Long Story Short, four short plays. Advertised as 15-minute pieces, each one is at least a few minutes shorter. This means that all are fairly inconsequential.
The first play, Two Sides, is probably the best of the bunch, and tells the story of a break-up between a young couple. As the title suggests, the man and woman have different versions of events. In the man’s eyes, she is desperate and clingy; in her eyes, he is a philandering rogue. Ciara Hackett, who has the best evening on stage, always has the upper hand, despite Tom Heath’s character’s protestations that his girlfriend is too insipid. But there is nothing new here.
The following three plays are less successful. I Wrote a Play is a knock-off of hit podcast My Dad Wrote a Porno in which the mother, rather than the father, writes erotica. Unfortunately, while her family squirm with anticipation, we don’t get to see the play read out. Plant Life, about a woman (Montalbetti) talking to her houseplant, has such a poor punchline that we must wonder if there was meant to be a punchline at all.
15 Minutes To Solve a Murder, a slight whodunnit, finishes the evening. With no time for any red herrings, the killer is signposted too easily, and the comedy is rather too obvious, and the acting is too large for us to care whether the murderer is caught or not.
A cast of eight seems a large number to take up to Scotland, but the actors are well-rehearsed and do the best they can with such thin material. However, unless Montalbetti can come up with some better plots for her mini-plays, Long Story Short will struggle in Edinburgh.
Reviewed on 28 July 2026 and then at Edinburgh Fringe
