My Mix(ed-Up) Tape review – fury on the dancefloor at fiery Welsh wedding

2026-03-27 - 13:20

Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot A reluctant return to the valleys brings a reckoning with a violent past and problematic present in Katie Payne’s vivid and raw monologue Playwright Katie Payne’s vivid, pacy play may be a monologue, but in its taut 70-minute running time, it sketches out an entire social landscape. Payne plays Phoebe, who has returned from London to the Welsh valleys, where she grew up, for her cousin’s wedding in a Working Men’s Club. Does she want to be here? Not at all. But the more time she spends in the venue, brushing shoulders with the community that shaped her, the harder it becomes to ignore the fury pulsing beneath her skin. In a production directed with fire by Stef O’Driscoll, Phoebe leads us through both the wedding party and her past. We meet her best friend, Alex, who she hasn’t spoken to for two years, and the teenage “neck-licking” crush that came between them. On the dancefloor, she collides with her parents and straight-talking aunty and does her best to avoid being escorted out by the bouncer for the second time. London might be her home now, but the valleys know the messy, attention-grabbing person Phoebe really is. And with a DJ set (provided by DJ Onai) soundtracking the night, it feels like Phoebe will have to dance her way through this blast of history. Continue reading...