Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Who We Become: The Moonshot Tape by Lanford Wilson
Deep Flight Productions
Genre: One Person Show, Theatre, Theatrical Storytelling
Venue: Haldane Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Award-winning, five-star production of a play by a Pulitzer Prize winner. In this compelling monologue, Diane, a successful writer, returns to her Missouri hometown to help her ageing mother. Responding to questions from an unseen local interviewer, she revisits pivotal moments from her past. Written with Wilson’s signature lyricism and emotional clarity, the play explores memory, identity and the moments when lives quietly change course.
Review
The lights go up on Diane, who has returned home to support her aging mother. Deep Flight Productions’ Who We Become: The Moonshot Tape is Lanford Wilson’s exploration of what it means to change without knowing you’re changing. Margaret Curry performs this quietly powerful piece.
As Diane sits in her mother’s middle-class home being interviewed, you question who you are; are you the interviewer? Is she reading from questions someone’s asked her before; are you sitting alongside someone else who’s the interviewer, or does the fourth wall exist here? The production never quite tells you, and it works.
The pace is completely right, slow and thoughtful like memory. Curry reaches for a drink on a small table when she needs to pause, when she needs to allow the character to think about what comes next.
This writing and Curry’s performance lets you sit with honest silence. You find yourself watching the small shifts in her face and body, the kind you only notice if you’re really looking. A moment where she’s gathering the words. Curry allows Diane’s presence to be there the whole time. There’s humour in it too, woven through the quieter moments, and it lands perfectly.
Then, a simple question: “What was your home life like?” and suddenly you’re taken into a darker place. She talks about her stepfather’s abuse, going into detail about what happened. The character work that’s come before means you sit with her through it; you understand her need to answer this question honestly, to address it in the clean and detailed but clinical way she does. You find yourself wanting to reach for a notepad and pen, wanting to write down what she’s saying, as though you’re the interviewer.
The room around her is lived-in. Middle-class comfort. You can see this woman and her mother in the objects around her, the furniture, how things are arranged. Nothing overdone, nothing that feels unnecessary. There’s a warmth to it. The lighting is warm, domestic. It’s the light you’d expect in a room like this. There’s no daring sound work, no lighting tricks announcing themselves. It doesn’t need them.
What stays with you after is the question that is never quite answers. Are we remembering a person who changed? Are we remembering the moment we changed ourselves? Are we sitting with something we failed to do? The play leaves all of that open. You leave and you’re still turning it over in your head.
This piece is Highly Recommended.
