Credit: Walker Morgan
Amanda Andrews brings her one-woman musical Bipolarcoaster to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, blending original music with an honest, often humorous exploration of living with Bipolar II Disorder. Ahead of the Fringe, she spoke about the show’s origins, embracing vulnerability and why printer repairs have become an unexpected part of her job.
Q: Bipolarcoaster is a brilliantly memorable title. When did it first occur to you, and were there any other titles that nearly made the cut?
Amanda Andrews: Thank you! The title actually preceded the project. The name Bipolarcoaster came to me while I was going for a walk, and I thought, “I need to use this title before it is used elsewhere.”
Q: You have described the show as both sobering and highly comedic. How do you find the humour within experiences that may have felt anything but funny at the time?
Amanda Andrews: Even though my finding the humour in high-stress settings (like business meetings, funerals and tense arguments) often gets me into trouble, laughing has always been my coping mechanism of choice. Comic relief expands my perspective beyond the immediate crisis and helps me see the humanity in a person who may be causing friction.
If I draw my attention to the raging customer’s shirt that is too small, and as he yells the peephole to his belly button opens wider, he is far less intimidating to me. If I can make a joke about how consistently lame someone I dated was, the behaviour is less heartbreaking because it’s “their thing.”
When I navigate the ups and downs in my mental health, there is great solace in acknowledging how absurd it is that, in the matter of hours, I can feel completely differently about the same circumstance.
Q: This is your first mental health play to feature entirely original music. What was it like hearing Kyle Lacy’s music bring your words and experiences to life?
Amanda Andrews: Not to sound cliché, but it is quite truly a dream come true. When I was a young teen musical theatre fanatic, there was no accomplishment I held in higher esteem than creating an original musical.
Collaborating with Kyle Lacy has been, and continues to be, a fulfilling experience that elevates my artistic capabilities. He has an exquisite ability to dive deep from a starting point of just one phrase, melody or emotion. It has been a thrill to see where these deep dives have led us—some have created entirely unexpected, yet now crucial, plot points.
Even on my worst day of feeling deflated and overwhelmed, when I listen to a recording of one of our songs, I beam with pride.
Q: The score draws on classic rock, rock opera and folk. Which song in the show makes you feel most like a fully fledged rock star?
Amanda Andrews: A Matter of Time, a ballad about the paralysis of depression, makes me feel powerfully raw and imperfect, which I would liken to my version of Johnny Cash energy. It’s the rock star quality of not having the wherewithal to be inauthentic in the interest of presenting what would be digestible for public consumption.
Q: You initially felt uneasy about receiving a Bipolar II diagnosis. What helped you move from questioning it towards finding empowerment through accepting it?
Amanda Andrews: I came around to take it as an invitation rather than a diagnosis.
My personal theory is that while great progress has been made in mental health awareness and treatment, the established diagnoses (bipolar, ADHD, schizophrenia and so on) just scratch the surface of complex human conditions. It is my belief that present-day mental health medicine has a relatively small list of established disorders, and a diagnosis is simply the one that most closely matches a person’s symptoms.
That said, there is still great truth and value in learning about the disorder that my tendencies align with. The more awareness I have of how my thoughts and behaviours deviate from stability, the more autonomy and freedom I gain.
Q: You have created more than ten original one-woman plays. What is the best thing about having the entire stage to yourself—and what is the most terrifying?
Amanda Andrews: I think the best element is synonymous with the most terrifying: allowing anything to happen.
My goal is always to have the play ingrained in me enough that, at showtime, I can simply take an inhale and invite whatever version of the show is meant to happen to come out of me. That means welcoming and incorporating any unexpected human interruptions, technical glitches or new personal inclinations.
Q: Edinburgh Fringe audiences can be wonderfully unpredictable. What sort of audience reaction would make you think, “Yes, this performance has really landed”?
Amanda Andrews: I will feel humbled if audience members don’t get up to leave as soon as the show is over, but rather feel inclined to stay in the space a moment longer to process. (But not too long, because another marvellous show will be coming in shortly!)
Q: Self-producing a Fringe run involves far more than simply performing the show. Which unexpected new role have you had to take on: producer, publicist, administrator, suitcase-packer or professional problem-solver?
Amanda Andrews: I have been wearing all of the hats you listed, but the role I am most eager to let go of is Printer Repair Woman.
I have found that at least 60% of the time when I need to print scripts off, my printer has an issue. The likelihood is closer to 75% if the printing need is urgent.
Q: What do you hope someone with their own experience of mental health challenges might take away from Bipolarcoaster?
Amanda Andrews: I hope that audience members can feel less alone in experiences that may weigh on them.
For much of my life, I felt intense shame and confusion about my thoughts and behaviours. I avoided identifying with them because I feared being a “defective” person. I dreamed of living a life with fulfilling relationships and a meaningful creative career. I worried that I would jeopardise this possibility if I acknowledged that I get so depressed that I let entire months pass me by, obsess to an extreme over crushes, and can get so worked up about a misunderstanding that I lose sight of everything else.
In retrospect, my refusal to examine my reality and take responsibility for my experience in the world was keeping me caged in a mental prison. I was so unhappy and could not understand why my life was nothing close to the life I wanted.
Ever since I embarked on the journey of being courageously honest—and equally kind—with myself, my life has increasingly become one that I am proud of and excited about; case in point, performing Bipolarcoaster at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
My ultimate goal with Bipolarcoaster is that it begins and ends with acceptance and action begins with denial and ends with acceptance and action. On the other side of that resistance is a lightness and freedom that we all deserve to have.
Q: Finally, if Bipolarcoaster were an actual theme park ride, what would its warning sign say before passengers climbed aboard?
Amanda Andrews: Passengers will likely experience:
- Clawing to an epic peak
- Sudden drops
- Occasional nausea
- Dates: August 24-29, 2026
- Time: 17:15 (50 mins)
- Venue: Heldane Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall (Venue 53)
- Tickets: Mon-Sat £12.50 (£10)
- Box Office: 0131 226 0000,
Bipolarcoaster | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
I’ll admit it, Bipolarcoaster had me at the title. Any show that can make me smile before I’ve even read the press release is already off to a flying start. Then I discovered Amanda has self-produced the entire Fringe run while somehow finding time to battle an apparently possessed printer (we’ve all been there). Between the laughs, the honesty and a healthy dose of music, I couldn’t resist finding out more. So, grab a cuppa, settle in and our chat with Amanda Andrews.
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