Review: MARJOLEIN ROBERTSON: O, Òran Mór

When Marjolein Robertson performed O at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, six people fainted, and eleven men walked out. This show is about a serious medical condition that was dismissed as a heavy period, and it is not for the faint-hearted. 

Starting off light, Marjolein talks about her dream funeral- something she's been planning since she was a little girl. She grew up on a farm in Shetland and there are some brilliant anecdotes about how she related biological issues to farm animals. 

She takes us through her vague education on menstrual health which leads into how she didn't realise how abnormal it was to bleed as much as she did. The night before her Higher English exam, her mum insisted on taking her to hospital where, after some initial dismissive attitudes about her 'just' having a heavy period, the doctors admitted she would have died in the night had she not come in.

Robertson is a master at building tension. There's some truly jaw-dropping moments in O and it seamlessly switches from devastating to hilarious. It's deeply frustrating to hear about the insufficient healthcare that she receives for the next fourteen years and the difficulty in receiving a diagnosis. 

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