Endometriosis: The Musical continues at Doonstairs at Gilded Balloon Patter House until 31 August 2026 (except 17, 24).
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Not what you’d expect a regular musical to tackle, but this show is at turns hilarious, frustrating, touching and packed with great songwriting to address this hidden yet debilitating disease from almost every angle.
The opening number is catchy; it’s bright and breezy with a style approaching caricature that has the audience onside right away. Our heroine, Jane (Sarah Hinrichsen), is given the chance to make a big presentation following a freak accident involving her colleague, Brad (Jason Zuckerman). However, just as she’s all primed and ready to deliver, she is attacked herself as ‘Auntie Flo’ makes her monthly visit.
The nature of language used when speaking of women’s menstrual health is played up to the hilt. What becomes clear is that using all these ‘labels’ in some way diminishes the condition itself. Visits to doctors are shown in toe-curling accuracy as a wheel is spinned to diagnose what the woman is experiencing. Toe-curling as these are, they are all familiar platitudes that garner some heartfelt groans of agreement from the audience.
All of these ‘code words’ for a woman’s monthly suffering is shown alongside Jane’s male colleague, Brad, whose predicament is so much simpler: mauled by a bear.
There is a beautiful moment of stillness in a stripped back quartet – literally nowhere to hide, revealing the monthly hell so many women live with and are expected to ‘push through’.
Delivering the narrative and the great songs are a plucky cast listed as: Olivia Buckley, Jordan Essex, Lorelei Frank, Emma Goldberg Liu, Angelo Harrington II, MJ Matheson and Beth Ann Stripling, all of whom must be excellent quick-change artists as they sport a range of witty costumes, designed by Anna Luehr.
The show, written by Maria Bartholdi (book and lyrics) and Kristin Stowell (music and Lyrics), is pulled together brilliantly by director Nikki Mirza. Previously, the show won all three awards at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in 2022 and it is so good to see a production of this calibre at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
A serious message in the most fun packaging.
Fiona Orr
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