one4review | On 21, Aug 2026

Corinne Salisbury’s Slayers is a gripping exploration of female anger and the corrosive influence of the manosphere.

Played magnificently by Zoe Hunter, Liane is a woman constantly struggling to keep her pent-up fury under control. Any slight against her daughter, Molly, hurts her to the core, but it is an encounter of her own that finally pushes her towards action. What Liane remembers as a relatively pleasant meeting with a man she labels “Fedora Man” is subsequently recounted in disparaging terms on a male-only online forum. Humiliated and enraged, she decides she is no longer prepared simply to accept such behaviour.

She finds allies in Nathalie, her brother’s ex-girlfriend who runs a boxing gym, and Angela, the mother of Molly’s best friend. Both have their own battles with the attitudes and misogyny fostered by the manosphere, giving Liane’s personal anger a wider resonance.

Slayers is thought-provoking, fiercely performed and unsettlingly relevant. Salisbury’s script contains some lovely Edinburgh touches and welcome flashes of humour, but it is at its strongest when Liane is given free rein to express her rage at Molly’s bullying, Fedora Man’s treatment of her and, most movingly, her struggle to channel that anger while setting a better example for her daughter. Zoe Hunter is a mesmerising presence on stage and thoroughly deserved the rapturous applause at the end. An absolute triumph.

*****

Reviewed by Rona
Assembly George Square- Studio 5

Until 30th August

12.15pm