'This Cinderella is not about princes and princesses. It’s about a single woman in her early 40s trying to go on a date, and a single guy who has an unreasonable fear of not being heard over loud music in bars. There may not be any ugly sisters, but there’s the occasional mysterious animal. There’s midnight. There’s a shoe. There’s dancing. And there’s beautiful transformation.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Brianna is a stand-up comedian. This is her life: an unfortunate name, a boring childhood, slow self-realisation, a late coming-out. Drink. Standing in smelly rooms with strange men who all tell the same jokes. Vomiting on stage. Carrying on anyway. Is there a reason? Probably not. Just a way of coping with your own mediocrity. Whose life is this anyway?
'Zoë Coombs Marr’s brilliant new play is a portrait of a life in a comedy routine. Well, five overlapping comedy routines, from five Briannas at different ages, performed by five foolhardy actresses. It is funny. And it is not funny. It is about being funny when funny is all you have.
'Is This Thing On? is a kind of Don Quixote for the female comic – a magnificent and stupid quest for one shining moment of specialness which may have already happened.' (Production summary)
