Odds Are draws from deeply personal experiences. What inspired you to turn these into a theatrical performance?<\/strong><\/p>\nMy 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.<\/p>\n
It was classic storytelling \u2014 just me and a mic on a stand \u2014 so I was limited in my movement. I couldn\u2019t 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\u00a0La La Land\u00a0moment.<\/p>\n
She sought me out the next day and said \u2014 with complete conviction \u2014 that my 20-minute story should be a 70-minute one-woman theatrical show. I told her I\u2019d prefer to write a memoir. She said she could help me with that too,\u00a0or\u00a0I could trust her and take it to the stage. So here we are! I would never have dreamt of this trajectory without her.<\/p>\n
She is now my rep!<\/p>\n
The show explores themes of grief, myth, and resilience. How do you balance the emotional weight with the dark humour in your storytelling?<\/strong><\/p>\nTragedy without comedy or comedy without tragedy isn\u2019t reflective of life. I\u2019ve worked hard to balance the two \u2014 not to undercut the sadness, but to amplify it and make the story more relatable.<\/p>\n
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The secret is vulnerability. Brutal honesty, in both the writing and performance, elicits the most laughter. Much of the show\u2019s humour comes from me laying it all out there \u2014 whether it\u2019s 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\u2019t the part I was envious of!)<\/p>\n
There is a section of the show that\u2019s quite dark, and I once worried that it\u2019s too much, too heavy, but preview audiences all said they were riveted and ready. They trusted I\u2019d lift us up out of the canyon\u00a0because\u00a0I\u2019d already threaded humour through the earlier sections.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve had incredible success with this piece, including awards at the United Solo Festival. How has audience response shaped your journey with the show?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe audience response is the main reason I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a nobody, but my story resonated with them so strongly that they felt they needed to share that with me \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
I did not start out with any aspirations for the show; the audience has always guided my path.<\/p>\n
What was it like collaborating with a creative team that includes a Tony Award-winning producer and a Fringe legend?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s 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\u2019m awed by the calibre of the creative team on this project.<\/p>\n
I once asked Lee Seymour if he only signed on because we have friends in common. He laughed and said that\u2019s not how producing works \u2014 that\u00a0Odds Are\u00a0was the first script he read since\u00a0The Inheritance\u00a0(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!<\/p>\n
I have, by far, the least experience of anyone on the team, so I\u2019m 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!<\/p>\n
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see\u00a0Odds Are?<\/strong><\/p>\nHave you ever wondered about the role luck has played in your life? Have you ever felt you are\u00a0owed\u00a0a good turn?<\/p>\n
ODDS ARE\u00a0is about how we mythologize the hardest parts of our lives. It digs up the stories we bury and reminds us we\u2019re allowed to laugh, cry and rewrite the ending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Award-winning storyteller Smita Russell brings their powerful one-person show\u00a0Odds Are\u00a0to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025. Fresh from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[93969,748,93970,1102,31356,71337,4884,19903,93971,93972,712,93973,93974,66424,16,15,93975],"class_list":{"0":"post-241643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-assembly-roxy","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-dark-comedy","11":"tag-edinburgh","12":"tag-edinburgh-festival-fringe","13":"tag-edinburgh-fringe-2025","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-grief","16":"tag-myth","17":"tag-odds-are","18":"tag-scotland","19":"tag-smita-russell","20":"tag-solo-theatre","21":"tag-storytelling","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-united-solo-festival"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114804043505594026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}