The tapping of pebbles against her window awakens 19-year-old Mari at 2:32am on a June morning of 2013.
It’s someone she thinks she knows, she can tell by the scrape of his cane, but on waking later she realises that this was not a dream, nor was it real but a psychosis. She is changed forever.
At first this loss of contact with reality might be cool, magical – full of rainbows, fairies and shooting stars, but the truth is far from it. Mental health conditions are not the sort of thing that you proudly check off on job applications and she has no desire for a therapist to validate her concerns.
As she starts to pace manically, she shares her obsession with Cassandra of Greek mythology, cursed to be a prophet no one believed, and she starts to see portents in the weather, everything a sign from angry Gods to her, the chosen one, the Messiah.
The storm of mania brings darkness crashing down in the form of depression and shrouded in the gloom of her mind there lurks a fire breathing dragon.
The suicides of tortured artists, movie stars and musicians makes her wonder if the condition is a gift or simply an unbearable curse. She determines that before ending her life she needs to be really cool, so she will read voraciously, watch film noir and get dope tattoos – and people will look at her gravestone and say, “looks like a badass”.
Encounters with healthcare professionals are of limited use, and the internet brims with quack spurious “cures”, prejudices and ugly stereotypes, as are movies, portraying those with bipolar as monsters, addicts or criminals. An antipsychotic drug offers some focus, as does a pivotal fateful meeting with her parents and her psychiatrist. She will learn where the dragon has come from. The only question now is what to do with it?
This autobiographical one-woman dark comedy is a fearless, honest and innovative journey exploring living with serious mental illness delivered with disarming vulnerability and steadfast courage and marked by a rare willingness to show every crack and gleam in her armour. The weaving of personal history with myth and metaphor keeps the audience engaged, challenged, and often laughing.
The production makes good use of a subtle soundscape and voice over, which is effective in telling the story, but can leave her a little stranded central stage, theatrically surrounded by hundreds of pill bottles, once containing the 33,800mg of medications which she has taken.
Wryly funny and emotionally charged, this simply told story offers a disarming take on taming a dragon while slaying a stigma.
Show Times: 11 to 16 August 2025 at 3.55pm (theSpace @ Niddry Street).
18 to 23 August 2025 at 9.15pm (theSpace Triplex).
Tickets: £7 (£5).
Suitability: 18+ (Note – Show contains distressing or potentially triggering themes).