Award-winning storyteller Smita Russell brings their powerful one-person show Odds Are to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025. Fresh from a Grand Prize win at the United Solo Festival in New York, Russell’s performance is a raw, darkly funny, and deeply human exploration of grief, myth, and resilience.
Blending personal narrative with universal themes, Odds Are invites audiences to reflect on how we make sense of life’s most improbable and painful moments. The show has already touched hearts across the globe and is set to do the same in Edinburgh.
Odds Are runs from 30 July to 25 August (not 11th) at Assembly Roxy, 14:55 daily. Tickets are available here.
 
 
 
 
You’re bringing Odds Are to Assembly Roxy — what can you tell us about the show?
It’s about a series of once-in-a-lifetime events, and how we create meaning out of catastrophic bad luck. The show will have you throwing your head back in laughter and leaning forward with trepidation. There’s storytelling, science, myth and math, which you would not think would work as part of one show, but it does — and gloriously!
Odds Are draws from deeply personal experiences. What inspired you to turn these into a theatrical performance?
My goal had been to share my whole story once with just friends and family, so I participated in a group show two years ago and invited everyone I knew. They all came and filled out the house.
It was classic storytelling — just me and a mic on a stand — so I was limited in my movement. I couldn’t use props or music. As luck would have it, there was a high-powered Hollywood rep in the audience. She represents Tilda Swinton, Cynthia Erivo and America Ferrera, but she happened to be there in that dingy black box theatre that night. I call it my La La Land moment.
She sought me out the next day and said — with complete conviction — that my 20-minute story should be a 70-minute one-woman theatrical show. I told her I’d prefer to write a memoir. She said she could help me with that too, or I could trust her and take it to the stage. So here we are! I would never have dreamt of this trajectory without her.
She is now my rep!
The show explores themes of grief, myth, and resilience. How do you balance the emotional weight with the dark humour in your storytelling?
Tragedy without comedy or comedy without tragedy isn’t reflective of life. I’ve worked hard to balance the two — not to undercut the sadness, but to amplify it and make the story more relatable.
 
 
 
 
The secret is vulnerability. Brutal honesty, in both the writing and performance, elicits the most laughter. Much of the show’s humour comes from me laying it all out there — whether it’s acting out how I planked above my husband when I was three weeks postpartum or mentioning how I was envious of a guy who was blasted by nuclear radiation. (To be clear, that wasn’t the part I was envious of!)
There is a section of the show that’s quite dark, and I once worried that it’s too much, too heavy, but preview audiences all said they were riveted and ready. They trusted I’d lift us up out of the canyon because I’d already threaded humour through the earlier sections.
You’ve had incredible success with this piece, including awards at the United Solo Festival. How has audience response shaped your journey with the show?
The audience response is the main reason I’m here! I started off sharing five- and ten-minute sections of the story in competitions and group shows. I kept winning, which was a good ego boost, but what surprised me more was the number of people who would line up to talk with me after I came off stage.
I’m a nobody, but my story resonated with them so strongly that they felt they needed to share that with me — often along with their own stories of grief and disbelief at life. The woman who became my mentor and rep was one of the people who sought me out post-show.
I did not start out with any aspirations for the show; the audience has always guided my path.
What was it like collaborating with a creative team that includes a Tony Award-winning producer and a Fringe legend?
It’s been an absolute dream! And our other producer, Shinzong Lee, is an entertainment exec who is used to closing deals with some of the biggest names in the industry! I’m awed by the calibre of the creative team on this project.
I once asked Lee Seymour if he only signed on because we have friends in common. He laughed and said that’s not how producing works — that Odds Are was the first script he read since The Inheritance (the play that won him a Tony) where he knew he had to be part of it. Now that I understand how much work goes into producing, I no longer think Lee was just being nice!
I have, by far, the least experience of anyone on the team, so I’m grateful for their gentle guidance and trust. I was the weird student who loved long-term group projects in school, so this brand of collaboration is deeply exciting for me! I am learning so much!
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Odds Are?
Have you ever wondered about the role luck has played in your life? Have you ever felt you are owed a good turn?
ODDS ARE is about how we mythologize the hardest parts of our lives. It digs up the stories we bury and reminds us we’re allowed to laugh, cry and rewrite the ending.