What are the odds? On the toss of a coin Smita Russell shares an absolutely absurd story.
A thrift-shop Marc Jacobs dress, said to have once belonged to Anne Hathaway, sparks a run of strange coincidences: every time Russell watches one of Hathaway’s films, the actress appears in her life the next day. Funny, uncanny, almost mystical — it’s the perfect doorway into this striking one-woman show about life, loss, and the baffling quirks of fate.
Russell’s story is at once epic and intimate. Nine pregnancies, seven ending in miscarriage. A medical verdict reduced to “bad luck.” A decade of silence and private grief finally shared in a performance that fuses Greek myth, mathematical improbability, and personal absurdities into a narrative that is heartrending, wry, and deeply human. Whether trauma plot or heroic journey, the line between fortune and misfortune could come down to one more toss of the coin.
Her search for meaning stretches beyond herself: consulting mathematicians, astrophysicists, and historians, she examines statistical outliers and improbable events, seeking a unifying theory for the unexplainable. These quests - spanning Odyssey-like journeys, late-term losses, and unfathomable setbacks - make the story uniquely hers, but its core of grief, resilience, and hard-won humour speaks to everyone.
The performance is raw, sometimes uncomfortable, and unflinching. Every laugh carries poignancy, every silence hums with tension. In moments of vulnerability, the audience inhabits grief, absurdity, and resilience, feeling the intimacy of a life laid bare.
Direction is tight and unobtrusive, gradually stripping away protective layers so tonal shifts drive the emotion - stillness breaking into energy, intimacy into theatricality, and each moment landing with force. While her voice sometimes gets a little lost in the venue, her presence and rhythm command attention. Her humour - from a Dyson obsession guiding a childbirth choice to envy of a man who survived two nuclear blasts - threads through heartbreak, keeping the story vivid and relatable.
A labour of love, shaped with courage and craft, it ends with a reminder: life’s chaos is unpredictable, sometimes cruel, but storytelling - brave and heartfelt - is how we make sense of it, against all odds.
Show Times: 30 July to 25 (not 11) August 2025 at 2.55pm.
Tickets: £8.50, £12 (£11) to £13 (£12).
Suitability:14+ (Note – Show contains distressing or potentially triggering themes, themes relating to pregnancy complications and grief, strong language / swearing).