Ruby Wax was always a matchless motormouth celebrity TV interviewer who asked the unaskable and delved fearlessly into the corners of her subject’s lives and even homes. I’ll never forget her rifling through the drawers of the Duchess of York’s bedroom in one TV special. But now she has renounced TV and returned to her theatrical roots (she began her UK stage career with the RSC) for a show that turns her merciless gaze upon a subject that’s clearly the source of a lot of fascination, but also immense pain - herself.
She freely and frequently acknowledges the narcissist within, but one that is forever being undermined by patterns of negative thoughts and self-criticism that has led to her suffering from bouts of chronic depression. This intimate, highly revealing confessional acts as a primer in the all-consuming destructiveness but also passion that brings it on, and her efforts to keep it at bay which has included stays in the Priory.
That too is where this show began its life, and she has since toured it to mental health treatment facilities, both private and National Health, to share her experiences with fellow sufferers. Now she takes the bold step of bringing it to a wider public where, as she points out, one in four of us will be affected by mental illness at some point in our lives.
As someone who has frequently been visited by the unwelcome guest of depression myself, I can attest to the authenticity of Wax’s own reflections on it. But you don’t, I think, need to have been there to welcome her piercing sense of honesty and her acute questioning of the right way to live.
She is given moral as well as fine musical support by sharing the stage with fellow sufferer Judith Owen at the piano, who weaves songs in and out of Wax’s story to provide variety and texture. The second act finds them both taking an even braver step as they take to the stage to submit themselves to a question-and-answer session with the audience. This drew the most poignant response of all - asked how she felt now, Wax replied, “I don’t feel anything - that’s the medication.”
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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