Beth May’s comedic insight into intrusive thoughts, Beth Wants the D, an autobiographical one-woman show confronting death and delusion, will play at Pleasance Courtyard during Edinburgh Fringe. Book Tickets.
With wit as sharp as it is self-aware, renowned podcast host and actor Beth May (Dungeons & Daddies, International Tour; We’re All Gonna Die, SXSW) unravels her experience with bipolar, suicidal thoughts and the razor-thin line between sanity and madness. While Beth Wants the D embraces the absurdity of the chaos of the mind through a fast-paced comedic lens, it never loses sight of the very real consequences of mental illness.
This profound production is brutally honest, deeply personal, and unexpectedly hilarious. It provides a surprisingly relatable cathartic experience for audience members in response to Beth’s own turbulent journey. Beth May’s story is one of strength, survival, and finding humour in the darkest of places; sometimes, the best way to face your demons is to laugh in their faces.
Writer and performer Beth May said, “I think this show might be helpful for people – although it is based on my experience with mental illness, I’m just one of millions, with 1 in 20 adults living with serious mental illness. These people, particularly those who deal with psychosis or have substance use issues, are often feared and vilified, and many times they haven’t survived to share their story. My story can’t bring them back or even do justice to their experiences, but it can show people that the curtain between sanity and madness is shockingly thin, and that our values are sometimes fragile. I think this show makes the case that even when things are so bleak and even when you feel like you’re CRAZY, you can come back from this. I think that’s a message worth spreading. Or maybe I’m just an ego-maniac!”
Directed by Riley Rose Critchlow (Chriskirkpatrickmas), this unfiltered storytelling experience is a candid confession and an insight into the extremes people go through. It offers a raw, real, and refreshingly human perspective.
Director Riley Rose Critchlow added, “Beth is a visionary writer and captivating performer, and her vulnerability in this piece is truly a gift to witness. It’s one of those shows that leaves you changed, simply by being in the presence of someone telling their own story as brutally honestly as they possibly can, with all the raw and messy bits left in. Especially at a time when we’re so regularly assaulted with TikTok-ified therapy-speak and near-meaningless mental health buzzwords, Beth’s piece is refreshing and necessary. It’s also fucking hilarious (and not a bummer, I promise!)”.
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