Irish playwright and performer Isolde Fenton is bringing a new play to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, In A Bad Way, which previously debuted at Cork Fringe Festival and was nominated for two awards at the 2025 Dublin Fringe Festival. Centring on health anxiety and how it affects daily lives, the play follows Grá, a young Limerick woman, who is convinced something is wrong with her. Following a rhythmic style and providing insights into the thoughts that come with anxiety, this play features an original score by Emily Donoghue. I recently had the opportunity to ask the writer and performer some questions about the one person show and find out what inspired the creation of this raw and transparent dark comedy.
How did you get into playwriting and performing?
As a nervy child, my parents sent me to Spotlight Stage School in Limerick to help with my confidence. Unfortunately for them, I became obsessed. It probably correlated with getting to be someone other than myself for a little while!
I studied Drama and English at University College Cork and realised in my final year that I wanted to commit to becoming an actor. I trained at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, and was selected for the UK’s National Youth Theatre Rep Company not long after graduating.
The GSA were great at encouraging us to create our own work, especially in an industry that is so precarious. We had a module called Manifesto that allowed us to create short scenes each week, with a specific concept and time limit. My first play, CHALK & CHEESE, was developed during this time, as was the starting point for IN A BAD WAY.
I discovered playwriting through my determination to be an actor, and I am so grateful I did – getting to do both, especially for the Edinburgh Fringe, is a dream come true!
What inspired you to write a piece of theatre that explores health anxiety?
I always wanted to write a piece about anxiety, having struggled with it myself all my life. I like writing about what I know, and felt like I had not seen it portrayed in the media as much.
Health anxiety is one of the most relentless forms of anxiety, because it makes you distrust your own body and therefore your own emotions. I was in drama school during the pandemic, and could feel myself constantly stressed about getting Covid, or being sick in some way that no one could solve. I started pretty much annoying everyone around me, to the point where it kind of became funny. I had an idea about a contrary young woman who had a “silly” health worry, and wanted to explore how anxiety can manifest in ways we don’t realise. There’s also the added feeling that as women, when we try to validate our symptoms, it can sometimes feel like no one is listening! I wanted to create something funny but with a lot of heart, mainly for my fellow anxious people to know they are absolutely not alone.
With the dark comedy drawing on your own lived experiences of anxiety and hypochondria, how has it been revisiting these memories and experiences through the eyes of the character of Grá?
It’s been quite joyful taking stressful past events and shaping them through comedy – it has allowed me to laugh at myself a bit more! Grá is also a lot more confident and outspoken than I am, so getting to step into the shoes of a character like that has been pretty thrilling. If I’m worried that I’ve developed a symptom of some strange disease, I’ll sit on it until it becomes a problem, while Grá will be straight into that walk-in clinic.
I really love comedy, and I think discussing difficult topics through humour is an impactful way to get messages across. Dark comedy is also a very Irish thing, I think – we love a bit of funny misery!
Why did you decide to share this story through the format of a rhythmic and unfiltered stream of consciousness?
When I first began writing, I found it a little difficult and more time consuming trying to draft a ‘realistic’ script. I started reading varying playwriting styles and discovered artists like Enda Walsh, Eimear McBride and Mark O’Rowe, whose scripts are verbal spectacles of imagery and emotions. I challenged myself to write in that style and found it kind of flew out of me! There’s something really unique and special about the rhythmic stream of consciousness style of scripts that feels really Irish to me. I think writing poetically can add another layer of subtext to the script too. After watching IN A BAD WAY people tend to say “I only realised halfway through you were speaking in rhyme!” which is a huge compliment!
In this piece you look at how anxiety is often misunderstood. What do you hope will be the wider impact of this one-person show?
I hope people will view anxiety with a little more sympathy. I think a lot of people downplay it as feeling a little nervous but it’s completely all consuming; it took me a while to realise not everyone is this stressed 24/7. This show is a love letter to my anxious folks!
If you were to describe the original score in one word, what would it be and why?
There are so many words I could use to describe Emily Donoghue’s score, I’m not sure how I could choose just one! Each piece is so utterly unique and emotive. For the opening theme, I said I wanted something upbeat and jolly (I specifically used the theme songs from Parks and Rec and the Sims 2 as a reference) and Emily created the most perfect melody in seconds. My favourite piece is Jenny’s Theme, which embodies the character of Grá’s best friend. It’s so sweet and so moving, perfectly encompassing the feeling of meeting someone who will be so unbelievably important in your life, and eventually watching them disappear. Long story short, I suppose the word I would use is poignant. Every piece is deeply connected to the script, enhancing the world and its characters. Emily is insanely talented, and I am so happy her hard work will be debuting at the fringe.
Catch In A Bad Way at the 2026 festival
It sounds like Isolde has really set out to create a new piece of writing that offers an authentic perspective on health anxiety. I am sure audiences watching over Fringe season will be grateful to see such relatable and often misunderstood topics being shared on stage. The show is based at Blether at Gilded Balloon Patter House (venue 24) from 5th – 31st August (not 17th and 24th). Performances start at 14:20 (1 hour), with the show on sale via the EdFringe website now.
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