There’s a trigger warning before this show starts that lists pretty much all the horrific things that could happen to a person. Given the gloriously apt title, ‘Shitbag’, you might rock up thinking this is a show about someone’s diagnosis of Crohn’s Disease. And it kind of is. But it turns out that performer and writer Hayley Edwards is also dealing with a whole lot of other stuff at the same time.

Crohn’s disease first. If you’ve not encountered it before, it can be nasty – uncomfortable, potentially disruptive, lifelong, various treatments are available for it but currently, no cure. So no wonder Edwards was taken aback when their persistence with the medical professionals resulted in this diagnosis. Their description of their early symptoms – along with super sound effects (Justin Gardam) – is a brutally graphic depiction of one of the ways in which some people might discover that something is awry.

The story unfolds from here. Alongside the symptoms accompanying the new medication, Edwards is also dealing with unspecified mental health issues and uncertainty about their gender identity. This, along with a possibly steroid-induced new enthusiasm for life, leads them into all sorts of tricky – and trigger-warning worthy – situations.

Edwards is a versatile performer, flitting between flamboyant theatrics and an almost unbearably touching vulnerability. They’re also an awesome singer – we get a tantalisingly tiny morsel of Mozart’s Requiem, for example. And the discomfort with which they dance around the most deeply uncomfortable topic of all – their mental health – is all of the stigma attached to mental ill-health in microcosm.

Bowels to one side, fundamentally, this is a play about one young person’s attempt to work out who they are, enjoy a healthy sex life, explore healthy relationships and work out whether or not they are really a ‘good’ person – age-old issues examined through a lens that gets considerably less airtime. On this front too, the show packs a punch, skating through gender stereotypes and misogyny in amongst the sexual mayhem. And for all that, amidst all of the massive life-changing questions, ‘Shitbag’ is a massive, messy reminder to make the most of the life you have.

‘Shitbag‘ has finished its Fringe run