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Shotgunned

 
Douglas Gibson Review by Douglas Gibson 2 Published: 19 Sep 2025 Riverside Studios Show Dates: 12 Sep 2025-28 Sep 2025

We begin at the end of their relationship, as Dylan sheepishly returns to Roz’s flat to collect his belongings. There’s still a hint of affection between them: Roz has gone to the effort of arranging his console games in order, something Dylan finds both touching and unnerving. He’s offered water (not tea) and, despite their efforts to be cordial, the breakup is just too raw. It’s an interesting way to introduce us to the characters, flipping the script so we’re left pondering what led the couple to this bitter denouement.

Shotgunned succeeds in capturing the precarity of life in your early twenties as well as the tender awkwardness of early love.

Both actors are assured in their respective roles. Dylan, played by Fraser Allan Hogg, is an adrift and disillusioned graduate, reluctant to apply for work that’s unrelated to his degree, whereas Roz, played by Lorna Panton, is pragmatic and headstrong, with hopes of starting a family. There’s something slightly antiquated about the gender dynamic here—where the male character is career-focused and the female counterpart is primarily defined by her maternal aspirations.

Written and directed by Matt Anderson, this two-hander is structured as a series of vignettes that move in a non-linear way back and forth throughout their relationship. It’s an ambitious way to approach a breakup narrative. In its best moments, these fragmented scenes hold a mirror up to how human memory works—the way moments from the past flash before us unbidden.

Yet, when the play tackles weightier topics—such as miscarriage—the character of Dylan doesn’t feel fully realised, making it difficult for him to engage with Roz in a meaningful way. It’s a subject that calls for delicacy, and I fear Shotgunned may have slightly missed the mark here. If the intention was to comment on how some men struggle to truly sympathise with a partner after losing a pregnancy, then Dylan certainly offers this. But I’m not convinced this was the aim. Indeed, when Dylan makes a quip about the correct name of his console at a heightened emotional moment, the scene suddenly falls apart. This doesn’t detract from Lorna Panton’s performance, which, at one point, lays bare Roz’s loneliness and grief with sincerity.

Shotgunned succeeds in capturing the precarity of life in your early twenties as well as the tender awkwardness of early love. But, despite some strong performances, the play doesn’t offer a nuanced perspective on the more complex themes it seeks to explore.

Amir Nisi

Douglas Gibson

Douglas was born and bred in south London and studied English Literature as an undergraduate. He went on to do a master's degree in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh and now balances his time between writing fiction, reviewing theatre and teaching.

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The Blurb:

Equal parts hilarious and heart-breaking, Shotgunned is an intimate piece of theatre about how the people we lose can shape who we become. Telling the story of Dylan and Roz – a couple who unexpectedly fall out of love – the play takes the audience on a non-linear journey through their relationship in a collection of fragmented scenes, like photographs in a shoebox or memories of a bygone age. It is a poignant and humorous reflection on the messy and the beautiful in relationships.
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