Review: Unleashed

📍 Etcetera Theatre

🗓️ 15th August 2026

🎟️ PR Invite

Unleashed is a 60-minute play written by Siobhán Healy and directed by Nathan Dowling, with both also starring in the production.

The show follows a dominatrix as she navigates the realities of living in a world filled with judgement and shame as a result of being a sex worker. Through light-hearted audience interactions, stories about her clients and the underlying pain of the choices she has made in her life, the show takes its nameless main character on quite an emotional journey.

Unleashed opens humorously, with Nathan Dowling taking to the stage dressed in fetish wear. He brings audience members onto the stage and interacts with them without speaking, relying instead on exaggerated movement that feels almost clown-like.

Following this, we meet the dominatrix character, who takes us through her life working as a sex worker. Further moments of audience participation occur throughout the performance, but these never feel particularly daunting. Siobhán and Nathan create a fun and comfortable environment for those involved, allowing the audience to become part of the world.

This helps to break the fourth wall, particularly as she teaches the audience about the best practices of her work, including safe words and boundaries.

She also introduces us to the various clients she encounters, along with the nicknames she has given them. In many ways, she almost becomes a therapist to them, creating a space where they can feel safe, supported and understood, ultimately ensuring they keep coming back.

Yet beneath this confident exterior, we are reminded that she is a person dealing with her own troubles, emotions and struggles. As the play progresses, the humour is balanced with a deeper exploration of judgement and shame, as we begin to see how this has affected her own life. The character we meet at the beginning feels very confident in what she does and how she presents herself, but as we learn more about her life, we start to see the cracks in that confidence.

Siobhán handles these shifts in mood wonderfully, capturing the struggles her character is going through while still maintaining the energy and humour we see earlier in the performance. It's during these more emotional moments that we really begin to see the vulnerability behind her character.

Nathan Dowling also gives an entertaining performance, playing a vast range of characters throughout the production. From clients and neighbours to a worker at the sexual health clinic she attends, he moves between characters quickly, using different accents and props to distinguish them. The pair work well together to deliver a performance that is both fun and thought-provoking.

The mood changes throughout the production are also supported by lighting and sound effects. Overall, these work quite well, with the lighting particularly effective during the fleeting moments when we see a more vulnerable side to Siobhán's character, while music played between scenes keeps the momentum going.

At surface level, this is a play about life as a sex worker. However, underneath it all is a message about shame and judgement and the effect this can have on those involved. For the most part, this works well. However, I felt at times that the more emotional moments didn't quite have enough time to sink in before the play moved quickly back into her daily life. A particularly poignant moment during the audience Q&A came when a question from a voiceover really struck a chord with our main character. It was here that we really got to see the depth of the struggles she holds and how much it is affecting her. This was a really emotional and effective moment in the piece, allowing the audience to connect with her more deeply.

There is a lot to like here, particularly the unique subject matter, audience interaction and strong performances from both Siobhán and Nathan. It balances humour with more raw and vulnerable moments well, although I felt some of these emotional moments could have been given more time to breathe. While it didn't completely draw me in as much as I would have liked, Unleashed has a strong message at its heart. It encourages us to look beyond the labels we place on people and question why someone should be judged simply for choosing a life that is different from our own. 

Balancing humour with vulnerability, Unleashed asks us to question the judgement we place on others and whether people should have to live with shame.