Showing @ Pleasance Pop-Up: The Bedroom, Edinburgh until Sun 24 Aug @ 18:30

Mental takes both actor and audience out of their comfort zones in a performance that is painfully intimate. Just before opening, the audience are driven in taxis to a secret location, literally leaving the space of theatrical convention in order to enter a separate, ‘mental’ space. Upon arrival we are given a cup of tea and carrot cake and asked to remove our shoes and coats. The experience is ritualistic: the boundary between audience and performer re-adjusted, as we become guests, and then friends, in James Leadbitter’s world.

James is in bed with the covers over his head, and the audience is almost in there with him. Slowly emerging from this hiding place, he faces us and I realise this is as hard, if not harder, for him than it is disconcerting for us. We have literally invaded his personal space. Yet as the performance unfolds this relationship of mutual antagonism turns to one of mutual solidarity and attachment.

Mental health has long been neglected by the mainstream media, and worse, by the welfare system, yet is a topic that is beginning to cover increasing ground in fringe theatre (other shows addressing it this year in Edinburgh include How Does a Snake Shed its Skin? and Talk About Something You Like). Mental handles the subject with sensitivity and charm. James doesn’t shy away from or dilute the truth, but presents it eloquently and with just the right amount of irony. His story is shocking, disturbing, distressing, but simultaneously hopeful and inspiring. As he says, we ‘know how it ends’ – with him and us sitting in a room, drinking tea.

Showing as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014