Rita Lynn: Life Coach Heads To The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Louise Marwood makes her Edinburgh Fringe theatre debut with a candid and hilariously dark cautionary tale, inspired by her own experiences of spiralling into addiction.

After leaving a secure, established, and long-running TV role in in 2018, actress Louise began a struggle with addiction which led to her to almost losing everything. Now, six years later, sober and fully in recovery, she is bravely bringing her experiences to the stage in her surreal, semi-autographical, and darkly funny debut one-woman show, Rita Lynn: Life Coach. Rita Lynn tackles addiction, trying to be something you're not, and the space in between.

Louise stars as Imogen, a dancer-turned-life coach teetering above the rock bottom she is about to hit, hard. "My suicide note was so good, it made me want to live," Imogen confesses after a near-miss.

With her relationship and career on the brink, Imogen has a chance encounter with a wealthy, depressed housewife in need of a life coach. On the spot, in a moment of drug-fuelled delusion, Imogen spontaneously creates and inhabits her alter-ego Rita Lynn, a surreal, no-nonsense, no-frills life coach, who bills - naturally - £250 an hour.

In this dark, wry, rollicking, and revelatory cautionary fable, Louise brings to life Rita Lynn's entourage of needy life-coaching clients, alongside Imogen's complicated and codependent relationships with her addict partner Dexter and best friend Meilin.

As Imogen struggles to hold herself together, will Rita Lynn be her way out? Rita gives it straight to her clients, brashly telling them the truth and demanding action - in strong contrast with Imogen's own self-defeating outlook. These two voices inhabiting one person emphasize the duality and conflicting nature of addiction. The show asks how far we can sacrifice ourselves to control how we appear to others, how we can value our relationships when we don't value ourselves, and how to face the consequences of our choices.

Louise Marwood is an actress and performer. Between 2014-2018 she had a starring role as Chrissie White on Emmerdale Before this she was a founding member of sketch show 'Comedy Bitch' which had numerous sell out runs at the fringe.

Rita Lynn is directed by Nick Bagnall. Nick trained at the Guildhall as an actor and has worked extensively in most major theatres in the country. Nick was the Associate Director of the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse between 2014 and 2019 and his most recent productions include 'Hansel and Gretel' at The Globe and 'Northern Soul' with Jim Cartwright.

Rita Lynn: Life Coach will be performed at 7pm in Pleasance Dome (Ace Dome) from 31st July - 25th August (Not 13th)
Booking link: https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/rita-lynn-life-coach

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