Beth May brings raw honesty and razor-sharp wit to the Edinburgh Fringe 2025 with Beth Wants the D, a one-person show exploring the chaos of the mind through comedy. Drawing from personal experiences with bipolar disorder and intrusive thoughts, May delivers a performance that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.
Directed by Riley Rose Critchlow, the show balances absurd humour with emotional depth, offering a cathartic and refreshingly human take on mental illness. With a background in podcasting and performance, May’s storytelling is as compelling as it is courageous.
Beth Wants the D runs from 30 July to 24 August (not 6th, 13th, or 20th) at Pleasance Courtyard (Baby Grand), 13:45 daily. Tickets available now.
You’re bringing Beth Wants the D to Pleasance Courtyard – what can you tell us about the show?
Beth Wants the D is a comedy about all the times Beth May has thought about killing herself. This autobiographical one-woman show puts you in the splash zone of death and delusion as Beth journeys through her struggle with bipolar disorder — but like, in a funny way.
Through the bizarre highs and perilous lows, Beth knits comedy and drama together to find the scariest thing of all — a future full of hope.
Content Warning: This production includes conversations about mental illness and suicidal ideation.
It’s funny, dark, and hopeful — and while it normalizes and pokes fun at the very fine line between sanity and madness, it also speaks to the very serious consequences of mental illness, and how they affect a person, a family, a community, and society.
Ultimately, it is intended to be a reminder that things can get better, and that even people some deem to be crazy and useless can go on to write a funny and touching solo show about their experience.
The show draws from your personal experience with bipolar disorder. How did you approach turning such a serious subject into comedy?
Bipolar disorder used to be called manic depression, which is maybe the more accurate name for it, because that old label is about the juxtaposition of moods characteristic of the illness.
It felt very fitting for my show about bipolar to have the same exchange of highs and lows, but beyond that, I would describe the genre of my whole ass personality to be dark comedy.
A friend of mine has this saying – “You can only laugh so hard until you cry and you can only cry so hard until you laugh.” I firmly believe that mantra would be on the bumper sticker of my life.
You describe the show as “brutally honest” and “unexpectedly hilarious.” What was the most challenging part of writing or performing it?
I think everyone’s life is populated both by boring moments and moments seemingly too wild to be true, and I think my biggest challenge was finding and communicating the importance of both types of moments.
Very rarely are things happening in our lives where we have the time to think, “and here’s what I’m going to take away as a lesson from this,” yet our values are shaped by these things all the same. So trying to narrow down both what has happened to me AND what I took from it in a way that still seems relatable and funny and not esoteric was a challenge.
Also, yeah, I’m talking about some of the hardest moments of my life and I’m asking questions I can’t answer yet. There’s a vulnerability in that that might hopefully connect to people, but it’s also just an emotionally taxing kind of thing to write and perform.
How has audience feedback shaped your relationship with the material since you began performing it?
As of answering this question, I haven’t performed the show many times. That said, what’s surprised me so far is how much people seem to relate to these experiences that frankly have been very lonely for me.
I was really closed off to the possibility that people could see themselves in my story, and when I found out that they could, and that they could even feel seen or inspired by some very specific and turbulent times in my life, my regret is not sharing it sooner.
What do you hope people take away from this show, especially those who may be unfamiliar with mental illness?
This show is obviously about my specific experience with mental illness, but I’m actually just one of millions, because 1 in 20 adults live with SMI or 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. So while my story can’t bring them back or even do justice to their experiences, my hope is that it allows people to see that the curtain between sanity and madness is shockingly thin, and that our values are sometimes fragile.
I’m also aware that there is a ton of incorrect or incomplete information about serious mental illness on social media, and consequently I suspect many people aren’t aware of what true psychosis entails.
I live a very privileged life in that there are “guardrails” in place to get me help when I need it. Many people are not so privileged, so my biggest hope for people walking away from this show is that they start to fear people with mental illness a little less, and fear instead the systems that make treatment so inaccessible for those who need it most.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Beth Wants the D?
Come on, don’t you wanna find out what the D stands for? It might surprise you!
