Published on March 27, 2026
A reluctant return to the valleys brings a reckoning with a violent past and problematic present in Katie Payne’s vivid and raw monologue, “My Mix(ed-Up) Tape.”
Playwright Katie Payne’s engaging and fast-paced play is a solo performance that, within its tight 70-minute runtime, effectively sketches out an entire social landscape. Payne plays Phoebe, who has come back from London to the Welsh valleys, her childhood home, to attend her cousin’s wedding at a Working Men’s Club. Despite her reluctance, as she spends more time in the venue mingling with the community that shaped her, the fury swirling beneath her surface becomes increasingly hard to ignore.
Directed with passionate intensity O’Driscoll, Phoebe navigates through the wedding festivities while simultaneously unraveling strands of her past. We meet her former best friend, Alex, with whom she hasn’t spoken in two years, as well as encounter the awkward memories of the teenage crush that drove a wedge between them. On the dance floor, she faces her parents and straightforward aunty, trying her best to evade being escorted out for a second time. Although London is her home now, the valleys reveal the complicated, attention-seeking individual that Phoebe truly is.
The atmosphere is underscored by a DJ set from DJ Onai, creating a vibrant soundscape that helps Phoebe dance her way through this upheaval of recollections and emotions. As the night progresses, it becomes clear that facing the past is not just a personal challenge, but a deeply communal experience that reverberates throughout her life.
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