There are benefits and perils in talking about your personal experiences – as Richard Gadd found after his TV show went viral. So how are Edinburgh acts handling it this year?
‘If you’re not in an OK place, you’re just re-traumatising yourself,” says Anna Akana, who is performing her show, It Gets Darker, at the Edinburgh festival fringe this year. In it, she talks about her sister Kristina’s suicide, and how a stalker’s threats of violence drove Akana herself out of standup comedy.
Trauma-focused shows have always been a fixture at the festival. Countless plays and comedies have been moulded from it. Countless artists have felt the catharsis of channelling their darkest moments and the weight of reliving them every day.
