When does lying bout your age start for women? For Davina Bentley, it only appears to have happened as a joke in her fringe promo before she immediately admits the truth. She isn’t 37, she is 42. With all the expectations and stigma that comes with that decade, Bentley is throwing herself into her debut hour at the Fringe, with an unexpected historical figure as inspiration…

I know you’ll hate this question as a writer – but why now for your debut?

I actually normally hate that question from development producers! But luckily this show is very pertinent to now because it only can be now. It’s about me being 42 and the inciting incident is Henry VIII. I’m freaking out because I’m 42, I haven’t achieved anything and I’m not anything. And then I read that Henry VIII was 44 when he started executing his wives and that’s his thing! So I’m like, ‘It’s fine, I’ve got two years to find my thing’. It took me 10 years [to debut]. I’m naturally a scaredy cat and the timing was never right… and then I suddenly did have the things in place that I wanted.

So how does age factor into your show?

It’s about not being a hot, young thing anymore. I’m not one of those ‘I’m 40 and I don’t give a fuck what people think’, I’m 42 and I deeply care what people think. [The show] became about looking for your identity, even if you’re in your 40s and having not achieved anything and having been perceived to have not achieved anything when you’re 42. Like, no husband, no kids, no house, no – you’re not a doctor, you’re not a lawyer, what are you? I can’t fuck- like, she’s too old to be my girlfriend, she’s too young to be my mum – what is she!? You know, go and execute six women- like, go quickly, get six wives, you have to have a thing!

Is ‘Dancing While Old’ different to Dancing While No-One’s Watching?

Such an amazing question. It’s a fact of objective truth that I’ve been on the planet for 42 years… the reactions to ageing are so interesting. The dancing while old thing came about because the show was originally about me trying to live a very un-quotidian life; full of feeling, wild life, the way that often men do into their 40s and 50s and 60s. I’m ageing, but I still have needs and I want to have a life full of emotion and feeling and not just suburban mundanity.

Apart from you, who is one woman in her 40s that we should be paying attention to?

Sophie Heawood. She’s so fucking cool, man. I’ve never met her… I think if I met her, I’d get quite star-struck. She’s really cool she’s a music journalist and wrote a book called ‘The Hungover Games: A True Story’. I’d always noticed her because I love her writing. Someone I look at because I think she’s really fucking cool and that’s the other thing – this show started about being cool in your early 40s.

You’re known online for your brilliant sketches and characters – does sketch feature in this show?

It’s already such a different show from the one I envisaged. I didn’t think I’d be wearing a ruff at points, dressed like Henry VIII! There are sketches in there…I don’t want to say my weirdest ones, so one of them which is probably my favourite, is my Ibsen heroine. I know, it’s quite niche. Basically it’s a sketch about…the kind of woman you’re meant to be. Whether you’re a Jane Seymour, whether you’re a fit 28-year-old Jane Seymour yoga teacher, whether you’re a sassy, difficult, argumentative Anne Boleyn like me.

What do you think is special about Edinburgh Fringe?

I’ve done 45-minute shows and when I was 23 I did a sketch show with my best friends… it was fucking superb! It’s the quantity of people who’ve put- doing the most incredible creative endeavours of their life. And I love that it isn’t just comedy, I love that it’s everything!

Sum up your show in five words?

Henry VIII, 44, executed wives.

‘Dancing While Old’ is at Cellar at Pleasance Courtyard from Wed 5 to Sun 30 August