Is This Normal? @ theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall

Ansa Edim wrote Is This Normal? in twenty-four hours, debuting the show at last year's Edinburgh Fringe. A year later, it won the Best Storytelling award at the 2025 NYC Fringe. Now, Edim returns to Edinburgh telling stories she swore she would "take to the grave."

From reckoning with a body that leapt into adulthood far before she was ready, to life-altering decisions that have been taken away from her, Is This Normal? tracks Edim’s fight to reclaim control of her life, and examines the extent to which women will swallow discomfort in the pursuit of ‘normalcy.’ 

It is hard not to like Edim – she is personable, bubbly and warm. Even fighting off Fringe flu, her energy slightly muted, she is charismatic and engaging. Edim tackles a range of subjects earnestly and honestly. Her American sincerity is perhaps a little on the nose for audiences this side of the Atlantic, yet her overall message of authenticity and self-reliance are to be admired. Edim’s own anecdotes inform this one-woman show, formed of a range of comedy, storytelling and self-reflection as she stacks up the events of her life that have made and broken her. 

Edim covers the confusion and horror of discovering dating apps in her late twenties, looking for answers and validation in all the wrong places. Like so many moral messages of our time, the ‘Ansa,’ if you will, comes from within. Edim is one of few Black performers headlining a solo show this Fringe, and she covers the insecurity and vulnerability of navigating life without a roadmap, the constraints the pursuit of normality can hold, and the tenacity to push on regardless.  

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Is This Normal?, theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall (Theatre 3), until 23 Aug, 7.05pm, £5-8