Making its Edinburgh debut, this award-winning musical comedy follows one woman’s hilarious and infuriating journey through an indifferent healthcare system while dealing with a mysterious illness. The production tackles the realities of endometriosis with a catchy original score, blending sharp comedy with a triumphant look at women’s health.
Would you mind giving us an insight into what your show/event/performance is?
We are thrilled to bring Endometriosis: The Musical to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year! It’s an absurdist pop rock musical about one woman’s journey to solve the mystery behind her chronic pain. (Spoiler alert: her diagnosis is in the title!) It’s genuinely hilarious, it doesn’t flinch from subjects many are too squeamish to touch, and it’s got a brilliant, catchy score you’ll want to listen to on repeat long after you leave!
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
The show is written by me, Maria Bartholdi (book and lyrics), with music and lyrics by my longtime collaborator Kristin Stowell. Kristin and I have been creating together since first grade when we formed our garage band The Ripped Nylons – fun fact: it’s where we get our production company name today! The show is directed and choreographed by Nikki Mirza, who has also done the incredibly difficult work of helping us reimagine the show as a 60-minute piece. Around the three of us is an incredibly talented cast and creative team who bring this absurd world to life every night.
How does it feel coming to (back to) the Fringe?
We’re from the US, this is our very first time in Edinburgh, and we could not be more excited! The show premiered at the 2022 Minnesota Fringe Festival, where it swept all three top awards and went on to a full-length production. But it was born as a Fringe show, and I think it really embodies what makes the festival so special: bold, inventive, boundary-pushing new work. We’re so grateful to finally share it with a worldwide audience.
With shows from all over the world at the Fringe, what sets yours apart?
We’re a brand-new musical about something nobody is making musicals about. Endometriosis affects roughly 1 in 7 people assigned female at birth (around 200 million people worldwide) and yet most people couldn’t tell you what it is. On average it takes a decade to get a diagnosis. Less than 1% of global healthcare funding goes toward conditions that primarily affect women, excluding cancer. So when we get a stage and an international audience, we take it as a chance to shout.
These are dry facts, but don’t worry! Our show is far from a lecture. It’s a riotous, hilarious, genuinely thrilling hour of theatre that just happens to be about something the world has spent far too long whispering about. We premiered in Minnesota, where it’s already built a rabid fan base, and Edinburgh is our shot at introducing it to a global audience.
On that, is there anything in the production or production team’s backgrounds which influences the way the show is performed or told?
Everything, really! My co-writer Kristin and I both have endometriosis.
Kristin pitched me the idea for the show back in 2019. She’d already been diagnosed, but I hadn’t. My first thought, honestly, was that it sounded like a pretty narrow subject. But the more we dug in, the more I realized the opposite was true: the specificity helped define the world that ended up being shockingly universal. People see themselves in our hero, Jane, whether or not they’ve ever heard the word “endometriosis.” Anyone who’s had to fight to be believed about their own body – anyone living with a chronic health condition – recognizes her.
Then something really wild happened. After our Minnesota Fringe run and a full-length production at Theatre in the Round in Minneapolis, I got diagnosed with endometriosis, too. My diagnosis took 27 years. Kristin’s took 13. So we haven’t just written Jane’s journey, we’ve lived it. Everything that happens in this show has, in some form or another, happened to one of us. This is firsthand, lived experience of the disease, set to music…and period jokes.
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
First and foremost, we want everyone to leave knowing what endometriosis is. That’s our number one goal! It’s actually why there’s a moment of audience participation later in the show where everyone sings “endometriosis” together. If you say it enough times and it stops being scary or clinical and starts being something you can actually talk about.
It might sound weird, but we actually hope people also leave the show a little bit angry — at how terribly women are so often treated at the doctor’s office, and at what they have to go through just to get their basic health concerns taken seriously. But it’s righteous anger, and they’ll still be humming the songs on the way out, so the hope is that the anger becomes energy for action. That might mean advocating harder for yourself or someone you love at a doctor’s appointment. It might mean finally looking into a symptom you’ve been quietly wondering about. It might mean some bigger form of advocacy.
But it can also be as small as posting about the show on social media, or texting a friend to say, “hey, did you know about this?” Because the medical system has failed us so comprehensively that some of the best tools we have are our own voices. If this show helps people get a little braver about talking through the hard stuff, about being able to say “I think something is wrong with my body, and I’m not going to stop until I get answers,” then we’ve done our job.
Your Ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t…?
Our ideal audience is anyone who’s ever felt like their health wasn’t taken seriously. A lot of the time that’s women, people of marginalized genders, and communities who have to fight just to be believed in a doctor’s office.
But the people who aren’t obviously in that group matter just as much. Jane’s story is incredibly specific, and yet it turns out to be strikingly universal. Everyone knows what it’s like to fight to be believed. Everyone has a family member or a coworker who just doesn’t get it. And far too many people know what it’s like to feel something is wrong with their body and not be able to get answers. You don’t need to have endometriosis to recognize yourself in this.
The people I’d most love to reach are the ones who don’t believe women have a hard time at the doctor’s office at all, or who think they’re exaggerating. I want to change some hearts. I want to show them what it’s actually like. It’s a show that handles a genuinely difficult subject with real skill, and it’s funny and moving in equal measure. We say “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll leave singing,” and I know that sounds like a cliché, but we’ve watched it happen, run after run, for years now.
It’s an intense month, so where you’re able, how do you plan to relax, and are there any other shows you intend to see or want to recommend?
We are excited to see any shows that also focus on women’s health! Any musicals! And amazing improv!
Endometriosis: The Musical will run at Venue 24, Doonstairs at Gilded Balloon Patter House
Runs: August 5th – August 31st at 16.00pm
Interested in being featured on our Have a Gander page? With many previews and Q&As lined up, we’re always happy to chat about including your show in future articles. Please do get in touch through the contact page to feature in an upcoming ‘Have A Gander’