Emmeline Downie @ Pleasance Courtyard

Middle-aged and adrift in the modern world, Emmeline Downie's Gail is an interesting counterpoint to Sam Eley's character, Basil Crumbwick, and a similar study in delusion and obsolescence. As a woman, though, different norms are at work. Rather than Basil's rage, Gail is stubbornly cheery, and Downie's portrait more overtly invites pathos.

Mother, life coach and entrepreneur – Gail brightly recalls spotting a gap in the market for slim fit, aspirational T-shirts (think 'live laugh love') and her designs are, like her, resolutely tone-deaf (the image of a Disney princess Frida Kahlo, for example, is not something anyone needs). The T-shirts are inspired and serve as an artful vehicle for some lovely gags.

In this first section of the show, Gail delivers her life coach training, and we get hints of the lonely existence behind the sunny facade, hints too of an obsessive streak (Facebook misformation, perhaps?) when, running over time, she has to speed up the presentation and there's an inexplicable number of slides of Chinese premier Xi Jinping. There's also more than a touch of internalised misogyny and envy of 'entitled' younger women with their broad horizons.

Later, in a shift to a more theatrical framing, we see the loneliness in full, in a section that has shades of Alan Bennett's portraits of older women. But unlike Bennett's characters, Gail is largely irredeemable. Perhaps here Downie spells out rather too baldly the essential narcissism and blankness of the character, while the tragicomic mix feels somewhat uneasy. Downie's really hit on something, though, with this disappointed, delusional woman, and the astute observation at work promises further riches to come.

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Emmeline Downie: Gail, Pleasance Courtyard (Attic), until 30 Aug, £11.50-£14.50