Ruby Wax, Fringe by the Sea review: 'wrung humour from the hardest subjects'

Kicking off with a discussion of her most recent book, I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was, Wax recounted her journey of self-discovery through various therapies she had tried in a bid to stay sane, but which ended with her checking into a mental health unit.

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There was swimming with humpback whales, staying alone on an island and 30 days of silence that calmed the noise in her head, although the mealtime gong was “so loud it made her cervix vibrate”.

She employed her unflinching honesty and razor sharp wit both to shun stigma and get laughs, playing down her talents while recounting career successes, not least her bestselling books and her mindfulness-based cognitive therapy masters from Oxford University. “In America,” she explained, “if I say I have an OBE they think I have cystitis”.

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Wax has an ability to wring humour from the hardest subjects - the loneliness of her traumatic childhood, the debilitating effects of depression - drawing the audience in by never shying away from revealing her own pain or missing an opportunity to make them laugh along with her. She ended with a call to arms to the one in four with mental health issues to follow the example of the gay community and make some noise in the fight for recognition and change.

The hour was rounded off with questions from the audience, several of whom shared their mental health issues. At one point she stopped mid-answer and said “I have dyslexia, what was the question again?”, evincing the response, “I do too, I can’t remember”.

Wax told her audience “you have to speak your reality,” and she delivered a masterclass in how to do just that.

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