Greenside at Riddles Court, Pickle Studio 

August 2-24, not 11, not 18

13:45

50 mins

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/river-time

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"Riveting and uncomfortable in equal measure. A very skilled performer and storyteller."

-★ ★ ★ ★ Lancaster Guardian

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"River Time! is not only a powerful meditation on the feminine urge to get in a river, but also a 

darkly comedic look at depression in our times, rejection sensitivity dysphoria, and dating in central London (without a trust fund OR a dog!). Laura weaves her story and musings with the classic Shakespearean tale of Ophelia and the biography of Virginia Woolf to create something heart-touching that reminds us that we are not alone in our darkest moments."

- Edfringe Audience Review

 

Poet and storyteller Laura Thurlow is staging her new solo show ‘River Time!’ at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Laura is a writer and performer based in Scotland, originally from Canada with experience performing across Europe. Her previous show, ‘A Preoccupation with Romantic Love’ received critical and audience praise in Edinburgh and Camden in 2023 and was nominated for an Emerging Artist Award with The Neurodiverse Review. 

 

Laura’s recent credits include being a finalist at the European Slam Final held by Commonword (Manchester), and at the Glasgow Women’s Library’s ‘Calm Slam’, and Scottish National qualifying slams at Candlelight Open Mic & The Poetry Experiment. She has recently been a featured performer with both The Loud Poets and Spoken Word Paris. She is currently completing a Master of Literature at the University of Glasgow.

 

River Time! pulls its title from one of the show’s opening anecdotes. As a student in Edinburgh with unmanaged ADHD, Laura would often go for a night out on the Cowgate, perceive someone as looking at her wrong, become paranoid that her friends secretly despised her, and have a meltdown. To regulate these intense emotions, she would take moonlit walks at 4am along the water of Leith. To this day, if she texts a friend River Time, they know that she means her brain is on fire. 

 

A little understood aspect of ADHD is the resulting impact of the Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria that sits alongside it. These mood swings, this intense fear of rejection, are felt in the body as intense emotional pain. Laura’s fear of rejection takes her to the river, calls her to the sea, begs her to submit to the absolution of dark waters. Better to be a beautiful corpse than a failed woman. Laura’s brain is ruining her life and plotting her death. This is a one-woman treatise on deciding not to drown. 

 

River Time! discusses Hamlet’s Ophelia and the life and loss of Virginia Woolf. Laura tells anecdotes of rejection and desperation – feeling adrift in one’s own mind. She speaks on grief, and guilt through describing the loss of a friend who did not survive their messy student days.  

 

The show is a dark storytelling hour from a gifted comedic voice. It is nuanced and entertaining while inherently and enduringly relatable. Come along and take some River Time!

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Quotes for Laura’s previous show, A Preoccupation with Romantic Love:

 

“An extremely likeable and charming performer... here clearly is a very talented writer”

 - London Pub Theatres Magazine 

 

“Painful but tender… a raw one woman show about love.

★ ★ ★ ★” - The Indiependent 

 

“I loved this show. The writing is so beautiful but it’s also honest – it’s written in the way people think. I kept forgetting it was poetry! It’s a show for anyone who’s ever felt lonely. Thank you so much – it meant a lot to me.” (Audience review, EdFringe 23)

 

“It wasn’t an easy watch, but it was so powerful, I’m glad I saw it. It’s funny at times and brutally honest at others.” (Audience review, EdFringe 23) 

 

River Time! will be at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, August 2nd-24th (not 11,18) at 13:45. Greenside at Riddle’s Court, Pickle Studio. 

 

Social Media:

@laurelbrae on Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, Bluesky, Threads

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