An Ode to the Casting Director – Assembly George Square Studios ★★★

Acting is one of the few professions where rejection is not an occasional setback but an expected part of the job description. Actors are asked to walk into rooms, perform confidence, absorb judgement and then return the next day to do it all again. An Ode to the Casting Director, written and performed by Sophie Fisher, understands that strange ecosystem intimately. Drawing on her own experiences, Fisher takes the audience through auditions, self-tapes, workshops, disastrous relationships, acting classes and the endless cycle of hope and disappointment that defines life as a working performer. It is a funny, observant and often painfully recognisable piece of theatre, particularly for anyone who has ever attempted to make a living in the arts. One of its smartest early sequences revolves around a casting situation in which Fisher is asked to change into a bikini. The moment is not presented as exploitation or humiliation so much as another example of the peculiar reality actors learn…