The audience enters the dimly lit basement. It’s a humid day and I’m pleased to get a front row seat near the portable air-conditioning unit. A fellow audience member tells me this is her first ever Edinburgh Fringe show. She’s flown in this morning from Dublin to see her sister perform in ‘Shatter Resistant’.
This is an impressive writing and acting debut from Isabelle Blanche. She has written a captivating, poignant and often funny show which she performs with gusto. She treats the audience as her best friends as she takes us with her on her emotional rollercoaster.
Cassie, a recent University graduate, has been working temporarily for a marketing company. She has high hopes that her experience of advertising ‘shatter resistant’ mobile phone screen covers will lead to her being given a permanent job. But her insensitive boss shatters her dreams by telling her that that her services are no longer required; they’ve decided to replace her with Artificial Intelligence. It’s devastating news for Cassie.
But she doesn’t mope for long. Cassie’s determined that she will have a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) despite this and other setbacks. But is a PMA enough to get Cassie through the problems she faces?
It certainly seems so when her crass employer calls her back, admitting there are some things AI can’t do. Cassie is overjoyed. She is less thrilled when she finds out that the new job consists of donning a chicken outfit for a new marketing campaign. Dancing like a chicken was not what Cassie had in mind.
Cassie tells us about her dating experiences with a man who’s far more enamoured of her than she is of him. But who knows how things will develop with a PMA?
Cassie shares a flat with another woman who’s not as tidy as she is, but that’s ok – Cassie just tidies up after her. She thinks they get on fine until one day she discovers a diary and is shocked to find out what her flatmate really thinks of her.
Douglas Yannaghas’s direction is well-paced. Lighting and sound are designed effectively by Tom Showell. Chris Dalgleish and Katie Bell provide excellent voiceovers as the marketing company manager and the flatmate.
This is a thoroughly engrossing hour and the time flies by. At the end of the show Isabelle Blanche’s sister is beaming as are most of the rest of the audience.
‘Shatter Resistant’ has completed its run in Edinburgh. No known plans to tour, but the producers have an Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/shatterresistanttheplay/
Reviewer: Tom Scott
Reviewed: 28th August 2026
North West End UK / Theatre Muse UK Rating: 4
