Plaything – Omnibus Theatre, London

Writer: Isabella Thompson

Director: Julia Sopher 

Isabella Thompson’s one-woman show, Plaything, plays for two nights at the Omnibus Theatre before heading to the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s distinctly quirky, Thompson alternating between a handful of infantilised characters, starting with a very young performer, Boo, competing in an American-style talent contest. Then there’s Boo’s entertainingly pushy mother who invades every audition to big up her daughter’s talent and scare off the competition. And she doesn’t just stop with the imagined audience. Thompson gets up close and personal with the real audience, apparently spotting an important agent amongst us, forcing him to accept Boo’s CV: ‘she’s got acorn brown eyes!’ she insists enticingly.

These interactions with the audience are often very funny, especially when it seems as if most of the audience members are plants, happy to be singled out and chatted to. But it’s a risky strategy. The more introverted amongst us may feel as if we’re being excluded from some private joke, while simultaneously dreading we’ll be picked on ourselves. Shy reviewers don’t make the best people to offer a spontaneously witty response to an unexpected demand.

Edinburgh audiences will no doubt all be game for this sort of thing.

As DJs go, Thompson’s ex-Etonian DJ Charlie is a wonderful creation, a bucket-hat-wearing idiot who could be the love child of Boris Johnson and Alan Partridge. He’s embarrassingly keen to suggest he’s a great personal friend of anyone who’s anyone (he’s thrilled to spot Fat Boy Slim in his imagined audience) and is eager to share his views on toxic masculinity. There’s a nice pay-off when his mum rings – she’s outside the festival. ‘Have you brought snacks?’ he asks plaintively. ‘Boursin?’

Then we’re being invited to do the Hokey Cokey and finally belt out I Will Survive.

Plaything is certainly fun, even if its alleged ‘unconsciously hard-hitting’ message isn’t always easy to discern.

Reviewed on 23 July 2026 and then at Edinburgh Fringe