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EDFringe Review  ✰✰✰✰✰

A hidden treasure!

Each year at the Fringe I seem to find one show that touches me in a way that no other does, that 'reaches the parts that nothing else reaches'. This year it was this one. It was nothing like I expected but it was so much more and so much better. While I expected light comedy I received wisdom and experiences which closely paralleled my own, and gave me much needed insights into what had happened in my own family, delivered in a gentle, forgiving and yet funny way. This show helped me to understand the death of my own mother and the strange behaviour of my own sister, and thus helped me find my own way forward. Thank you so much, Lisa!

The Scotsman Birthing the Crone ✰✰✰ 3 /5

American performing arts instructor Lisa Wilson has quite a different
play in mind when she began preparing to come to Edinburgh Festival,
but her idea to explore the downsides and the upsides of the
menopause was overtaken by the events that happened in her own
family and which she has worked into her one-woman play.

It’s all a little bit new agey, and there is a little too much medical
minutiae in some of the stories she tells about her family. But Wilson is
a compelling performer and an excellent storyteller – and her material
about the third age of women is intriguing and unusual, a story of how
the end of fertility heralds in an age of insight, wisdom and
understanding.
This is the sort of subject matter which could have been excruciating
in the wrong hands- but Wilson’s honesty, skill and manifest emotion
make it work. But I have the sense that the events she talks about
have happened a little too recently to have been fully processed. She
could shift the emphasis more towards the mythological aspect of her
story to allow some of her more recent wounds a chance to heal.

Claire Smith

Fringe Review Birthing the Crone ✰✰✰ 3 /5
Mmmmm? 12 Aug 2009 reviewer: Stuart, Scotland
I saw this show tonight and to be honest, I almost left in the
first few minutes. However, I stuck with it and concluded
that this one woman show was written from the heart. It
tells a very poignant tale of one womans journey through life
and in particular,the menopause. Lisa Wilson appears to be
very experienced and a gifted actress and although the
audience numbers were small, she told her tale with great
skill and characterisation. Whilst not my cup of tea, I can
appreciate the talent and commitment required to perform
such a piece of theatre.

Three Weeks 4/5 ✰✰✰✰

Wilson’s One-person show

Lisa Wilson admits that most of the things she has ever learned happened because of theatre. Theatre is also the place for her confession, her therapy, her honest account of the last couple of years, in which she hasgone through menopause and lost important people in her life. Although it may sound grim, this story of heartache and loss is actually an uplifting tale and survival without any hint of cheesiness. Wilson is agenuine performer, able to make the audience sympathise, laugh and cry with her healthy dose of self irony. Even if, like this reviewer you are not particularly spiritual, Wilson’s story about real life and the people in it will keep your fascination until the end.