Edinburgh finds that life is no laughing matter

Published: 23 July 2019
Reporter: Steve Orme

Challenging perceptions of mental health: Demi Nandhra Credit: Tom Kennedy

Birmingham-based Demi Nandhra is to take her show about mental illness, suicide and radical cure attempts, Life is No Laughing Matter, to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Life is No Laughing Matter is “part personal narrative, part social rant, part mess that tells the exhausting account of living with depression from the urgency of finding a cure to dissecting the cultural disease”. It is a “nuanced look” at mental illness from the perspective of a South Asian woman.

It asks its audience to consider weighty questions such as “can suicide be all right for some?” It also makes “bold controversial statements” including “depression is not just killing white men”.

Nandhra said, “I make work for liberation; for myself and others to begin to feel at home in our bodies in any context. I’m really excited to be taking my work to Edinburgh and hopefully challenging perceptions of mental health or give an insight into what it feels like to struggle and deal with thoughts and feelings connected to our mental health.”

Nandhra writes and performs Life is No Laughing Matter at Summerhall at 1PM from Wednesday 31 July until Sunday 18 August (no show on Monday 5 and Monday 12 August).

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