Q&A: EDINBURGH 2024: Hannah Whittingham on DEATH BECOMES US

BWW caught up with Hannah Whittingham on bringing Death Becomes Us to the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

How did you first get started in the world of theatre?

I was actually a ballerina before I was an actor (I joined the Royal Ballet when I was 8!), but my mother was a singer, so it wasn’t long before I was writing angsty songs at the piano and performing them in school show - whether they wanted me to or not.

Can you tell us a bit about your show, Death Becomes Us?

The show grew out of the experience of losing my mum and four brilliant grandparents all over two years. It made me realise how terrible we are at talking about death, so I wanted to create something that was direct and honest but funny. Something that encourages us to look right at the thing we’re most scared of and realise there is something life-enhancing about bringing death into life. And that you can also do that with music.

What was the creative process like for Death Becomes Us?

It actually started life as a documentary. With my other professional hat on, I’m a writer and producer, and I’d written this documentary for Ruby Wax that we were all set to do. But for various long-winded reasons, it never quite got the green light. So I decided to take the work I’d done and channel it into a one-woman show.

What is it like telling your personal story as a show?

A bit of a roller coaster. In some ways, it’s incredibly liberating – as an actor, you spend so much time interpreting other people’s words, and now I’m finally speaking my own. But it also feels vulnerable as there are some quite personal moments. I’ve also had to make a few apologies to the sky for some of the stories I tell – Great Aunty Hilda and her sidekick Madge feature particularly heavily (Sorry Hilda).

How do you write a show that is both moving and funny about a topic like death?

I think we already have a lot of black humour around death; it’s part of the way we get through something that enormous. And in the context of the show, it tells the audience it’s going to be ok – we’re not staring at the abyss for fifty minutes, there are some truly absurd elements to the way we deal with death, and it’s ok to laugh at them.

What is it like bringing Death Becomes Us to the Edinburgh Fringe?

The last time I was up at the Fringe was 2009 (!) so it’s exciting to be back. And fun to be back at a very different stage of my life. It’s an extraordinary place and I’m as excited about seeing as many other shows as I can cram in as I am about sharing my own!

What do you hope audiences take away from Death Becomes Us?

I hope it makes people think about death in a different way. And that it encourages conversation – for people to go home and talk about what a good death might mean, what they want around their death, and what they want from life.

How would you describe Death Becomes Us in one word?

Thought-provoking (is that cheating?!)

Death Becomes Us runs from 2 to 24 August (no performance on 11 August) at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Photo Credit: Rolfe Klement 

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