Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Belly
Reilly O'Shaughnessy
Genre: Solo Performance, Solo Play
Venue: Greenside
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Written and performed by Reilly O’Shaughnessy, “Belly is a one-person play about girls, eating, grief and control. Told through interwoven stories of three women across one family: Ellie, a high-school swimmer groomed into an eating disorder by a well-meaning, incredibly harmful coach; Katie, her pregnant aunt, trying to “do everything right” for her baby inside of wellness culture and medical fatphobia; and Susan, Katie’s mother, newly widowed and learning how to live with grief and appetite in an empty house. Performed by a single actor, the piece moves between sharp, funny, conversational monologues and scenes and more heightened, poetic sequences.”
Review
Reilly O’Shaughnessy is such a capable solo performer and I don’t think she realises how it has come naturally, which has freed up a part of her soul just to get on with the job.
In the tiny performance space underground on George Street in Edinburgh, she fills the space with her skills but never overfills it. Just three rows of chairs are present in this small, just over 20-seater, and yet the performance feels both intimate and set at just the right volume and intensity for the 20 or so people here.
That then sets up a story which is both shattering and profoundly human and relatable.
Reilly O’Shaughnessy is at heart a storyteller. Theatre adorns the piece but never overbears it. She plays different characters, including close family members, and there is perhaps scope here for a little bit more diversity in interpreting these, bringing them into the story. Perhaps there is a danger that too much voice work here would be seen as exaggerating in such a tiny space, and that is where perhaps the genius of modulating this for this size of space is important, and yet the show will need to play in much bigger spaces, as it surely deserves to.
Beyond storytelling, she is an actor, host, singer, mimer and physical theatre performer. Because of the size of the space, she is right on top of us, and yet I never felt this was overdone. It is set at just the right level. There is just one song in the show, which makes it feel like an exhibit, and there is potential to bring one or more into the proceedings.
The story is heartbreaking in places and uplifting in others. It is mostly a tale of challenge and a hero’s journey. It is full of learned and earned insight. What marks it out as an outstanding piece of performance is that it is a solo show that requires nothing more than the performer and her abilities. Dramaturgy might reduce the script by five minutes, but it is still an entirely satisfying and nourishing piece of story theatre.
We learn about the pressures of performance sport and the toxic connection to diet and nutrition, exercise and the pressures of seeking perfection in the name of a kind of darkly benevolent optimisation of the human body, soul and spirit. Who are we ultimately here to please, and what happens if we disappoint? What consequences result from the feverish quest to make our parents and teachers proud of us but never really please ourselves?
The piece is never too polemical, but there are lessons and messages here which have been woven into the well-crafted script, which is ultimately a fairly linear narrative because there’s an urgent story to be told. Telling your own story at the Fringe can make you vulnerable. This one seems to have served the performer well. I do wonder what the next story will be once she has told her own. It is a challenge for a solo performer who brings their own personal story to the Fringe because, once it is told, the next story can be further adventures in one’s own biography, but often we need to find something else to tell.
This is an outstanding piece of theatre because of that directness, and yet it also contains layers as we almost journey through gaining insight that can at first be physical but then goes deeper, and then we find the more subtle nuances of who we really are and what we are here for.
There is a really tight physicality, and the scenes focusing on swimming were beautifully realised and deeply affecting because they were done with such economy.
You will shed a tear for, and with, the performer, but you will also find yourself laughing at some of the sharp comedy one-liners and episodes.
Belly was one of my highlights of the Fringe, and I encourage you to see it elsewhere if you can. This is fullhearted, accomplished, high integrity, in-deep and real solo storytelling theatre.
Belly received the FringeReview Outstanding Theatre Award for Edinburgh Fringe 2026.
