Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Written Off
The Dutch Cords Theatre Company
Genre: Comedic, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: TheSpaceUK
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Phil Deed is a best-selling romantic novelist, marketed to Gen Z by his bulletproof agent / publicist, Sal Powers. Together, they’ve forged a life-affirming genre for the social media age – and accidentally become emotionally entangled in the process. But Phil’s grown to despise the saccharin-sweet characters that have made them a fortune, and wants to take the genre to an altogether darker place. This new comedy-drama explores a creative partnership, where head and heart are pulled in drastically different directions.
Review
An interesting choice of music to open with – the Titanic theme, which sets the tone nicely for what turns out to be a relationship heading for the rocks.
This is a two-hander between writer and agent, with a third, unseen presence hovering over proceedings: their therapist, Michelle. Phil Deed (Simon Holland) is a successful novelist; Sal Powers (Hilary Cordery) is his literary agent, publicist and partner. She has shepherded him through two very successful romance novels and is looking forward to the third – except Phil doesn’t want to produce a third instalment of what he sees as the same formula as the first two. Sparks fly, both over the nature of the book and over the couples therapy they’ve begun as their personal relationship falls apart.
Holland is also the writer and has created a witty comedy with a naturalistic style; the dialogue crackles with humour and tension in equal measure. Holland and Cordery make a genuinely believable warring couple on stage, their performances strong and well paced, and the pressures of working together as Phil tries to branch out creatively against Sal’s resistance add real texture to the piece.
The set is simple, just two chairs and a small shelf unit; however, the small stage creates a slightly constrained, unrealistic living room, leaving little space for the actors to move as naturally as they might with more depth to work with; there’s a fair amount of wandering from side to side, not all of it purposeful. However, they do make good use of the forestage in the scenes where each addresses their offstage therapist directly – nicely handled exchanges that avoid the trap of exposition, neither character simply repeating Michelle’s side of the conversation back for our benefit.
Where the writing falters a little is in the gap after the couple’s big falling-out: we are left with a dead stage for a couple of minutes before they reappear (in different costume) some eighteen months later in the story and narrate what’s happened in between. The reconciliation that follows – he’s about to leave for the US, she confesses to liking book three after all – feels rushed, and is an area that would benefit from further development.
The central focus stays firmly on the relationship, but there are interesting hints at the wider state of publishing – the fiction people actually want, the pressure publishers exert on authors – and a brief foray into AI that never quite develops into anything of substance.
Overall a witty and thoroughly entertaining comedy.
