This is an autobiographical tale that starts with a new romance and is followed by amazing career success, motherhood and anguish when her son is born with severe health issues.

Bryony Kimmings uses her craft to tell this story as a storyteller would, it is pitched at a perfect pace to take the audience along with her as the story unfolds.

She uses amazing onstage filming techniques, visuals and original songs in an innovative way that truly entertains and engages the audience.

A fabulous performer who defines herself as a performance artist but she is most definitely a very accomplished comedian, singer and actress.

As the story unfolds, I was in awe of how she has the strength to overcome the challenges she has encountered.

She had the inner strength to overcome the challenges but at a very high personal cost to her physical and mental health.

She harnessed the emotional rollercoaster of joy and pain and transformed the experience into material for her show “I’m a Phoenix, Bitch”.

Throughout the show, she uses different voices and even a deep male middle-class voice to represent her continual self-doubt and anxiety.

Compassion just seemed to emanate from the audience to the lone female on stage.

There is no denying that the subject matter is challenging and sad but there is much laughter and enjoyment to be had.

No tears were shed even though it is an unbelievable sad story.

I was totally captivated with the performance and I would totally recommend that you attend this show.

I wasn’t sure at first if I liked it.

It was thought-provoking and cringeworthy at times.

She is a very brave woman to bring her personal life to the stage.

She was brilliant.

We are going on a tumultuous journey through motherhood, marriage and mental health.

It’s going to hurt.

Having already seen two of her previous shows, Sex Idiot and Fake It ‘Til You Make It, I’m already invested in Bryony’s life and I am strapped in tight, ready for laughs and probably tears.

There is so much happening it would be easy to be overwhelmed but Bryony is extremely articulate and incredibly clever with theatrical devices so I am never lost – except in the compassion I feel for her throughout.

There are 4 mini-sets that take us into Bryony’s world, the central one being home – a cottage in Oxfordshire.

The potential to be cut off from society when the surrounding stream rises begins as a metaphor but turns frighteningly real in the throes of psychosis as Bryony shuns her friends and family to exist in the terror of post-natal depression alone.

Bryony lets us into her world completely.

We are with her running through the haunting forest, drowning in the rising stream, burning down with the timber cottage and ultimately rising like a phoenix to breathe and take charge of recovery.

In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that obtains new life by arising from the ashes and is born again.

This show ‘I’m a Phoenix, Bitch’ confused me – I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Why was she a phoenix or a bitch?

After about 15 minutes into the show, I started to think – this is going to be boring, but I was totally wrong.

My first impression was that the one-woman show was self-obsessed with some light-hearted typical comedy.

She spoke about her previous shows which involved a lot of sex and drinking excessively for a week to determine if she was more creative drunk or sober.

What I didn’t expect was her then brutally honest rollercoaster ride into parenthood.

Bryony Kimmings shared an incredibly raw and honest performance.

This wasn’t fiction – it was real life.

At times, her insight into post-natal depression made me feel uncomfortable.

I think as a society we sugar-coat and are almost obsessed with being happy.

This performance was hauntingly dark.

The pain she endured when her relationship broke down, to discovering that her son was ill, and she herself was sick with post-natal depression was palpable.

Sometimes the cards life throws us is just bad luck – we can’t blame ourselves.

The audience was moved to tears.

The use of film and media to depict her experience was incredible.

She commanded the stage with simple but effective props and an angelic voice like Adele.

I felt grateful to see her put a spotlight on such a personal and sensitive issue.

It was like we were taken into her head or a private therapy session.

There were no taboos.

It was all part of her healing journey and she does get better, otherwise, the show would have been super weird… if it could get any weirder!

I appreciated this show more and more as I left the building.

I don’t know if I’d recommend the show to someone who is thinking of having their first baby.

But then again, maybe it’s the sort of show they should see because having a baby isn’t always roses, and often we don’t talk about the hard stuff.

It’s not a feel-good piece of theatre, but it is such an important, unique and powerful tale.

Byrony Kimming’s ‘I’m a Phoenix, Bitch’ is a heartfelt, wonderful, wrenching and moving piece of theatre, made all the more inspirational due to its deeply personal nature.

Chronicling Byrony’s journey through trauma, a break-up and her recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder, this is a piece of performance art combining elements of a musical, horror movies, pop art, light installation and scale.

The show is anchored by a series of great songs that are staged brilliantly, with appropriate lighting and projection across the stage.

Byrony portrays a number of different characters with ease throughout, charting her journey, beginning with the moment she breaks up with her boyfriend, nearly loses her son and her mind in the process.

From that point, her travails and triumphs are depicted with a dizzying mix of horror, mania, funny and genuinely moving moments.

Ultimately, Byrony’s journey as she learns to trust herself is a testament to her resilience, and in turn, inspiring to everyone watching.

The show’s raw intensity, vulnerability and emotion left this reviewer exhilarated and inspired, thrilled by the spectacle of Byrony’s rise from the ashes of trauma.

I’m a Phoenix, Bitch is unmissable and recommended without reservations.

Kimmings is a powerhouse creator, simultaneously performing, commentating, directing, camera-operating and weight-lifting in this masterfully crafted, gut-punching whirlwind.

Her script shifts effortlessly from hilarious genre parody to heart-wrenching introspection to psychedelic horror – but every moment is perfectly balanced and not an instant feels out of place.

And as if expert manipulation of tone wasn’t enough, Kimmings has truly mastered every art form.

If it’s not an impromptu music video unfolding live on stage (with exquisite vocal talent, of course), it’s impeccable sound design mixed live, or intricate set pieces, or an extravaganza of lighting and projection, or perfectly planned staging and devastatingly inventive use of props – all complemented by a consistently mesmerising performance.

So, yes, the program will tell you this is a hold-no-punches, feminist manifesto about motherhood – and it absolutely is all of those things – but it’s also a masterclass in how to make good theatre.

Beg, borrow or steal* a ticket if you must – this will push the boundaries of what you know theatre to be and you will be a better person for having seen it.

*This is a turn of phrase. Please don’t actually steal a ticket – that’s just what we in the biz call “a dick move”

I’m a Phoenix, Bitch is profoundly moving without scaring the audience into negotiating a group rate with their local psychiatrist.

Autobiographical performance artist, the beautifully funny Bryony Kimmings, fronted a packed theatre to tell, sing, dance, mime, record and project her truth about tragedy in what I feel is an extraordinary piece of theatre.

A satire of archetypes and their dangerous impact on women quickly descends to a compelling horror that would’ve been thrilling entertainment had it not been true.

Following a relationship breakdown, Kimmings finds herself trapped in a cottage, with a very sick baby, an infestation of spiders, rapidly rising water and an inner voice that is the only hurdle between her and recovery.

The show imitates life, the exquisitely detailed fairy-tale stage setting doesn’t assure us of a fairy-tale ending, and in Kimmings own words ‘that’s okay.’

Full disclosure: I judge books by their covers and choose shows by their titles.

Yes, it’s a gamble but in this case, one that paid off.

Bryony commands attention from the outset – careening on to the stage in a sequinned orange gown in a show of melodramtic mime and slapstick – before breaking the fourth wall and addressing her audience directly.

“This is a safe space,” she reassures. “You’re safe and I’m safe… now,” she tells us.

It’s hard to fathom the need for such a disclaimer at first.

What follows are hilarious anecdotes about pre-2015 Bryony – the Breakfast Nymph and the Earth Mother – told at two of the four set ‘stations’ uncovered on the stage.

For a one-person show with limited sets and props, Phoenix fills the large Playhouse stage with ease.

The tone and content of the autobiographical show flips and darkens as Bryony re-enacts her post-natal depression, relationship breakdown, son’s near-fatal illness and her own eventual psychosis.

It is devastating. And beautiful and honest and captivating and enthralling and all too relatable.

And it’s funny! Not the gasp-for-breath laughter that punctuated the first third but enough to hear chuckles punctuating the stifled sobs and stunned silence of the Playhouse audience.

I’m rarely moved by emotional performances but it’s no exaggeration to say I discovered – to my surprise – tears rolling unchecked down my cheeks and dripping on to my shirt.

It was sublime theatre and a work I haven’t stopped thinking about in the ensuing week.

Kimmings is a force to be reckoned with, her presence absolutely dominating the stage and the audience all by herself.

She bounces effortlessly between comedic one-liners and heart-wrenching anecdotes.

The story is complex and unique, with moments everyone can relate too, mother or not.

The use of technology, film, and projection is seamless and adds just enough to be effective without being overbearing.

Highly recommended!

I’m a Phoenix, Bitch is an intense performance relating the story of a mother and her personal journey of light, darkness and ultimate survival.

It is a story that is uniquely portrayed by way of reflective chapters.

Each chapter is a reflection of pivotal events, which in turn, determines the very real emotional responses as related to each event.

The performance incorporates moments of light-heartedness, love, anguish, trauma and pain.

The emotions are raw and intense as it is ultimately a story of a mother’s emotional struggle, survival and regeneration paralleling the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes to strength and renewed life.

The performance brilliantly incorporates storytelling, music, film techniques and stage sets to take the audience on a reflective journey of ‘looking back’ in order to be able to ‘move forward’…

Congratulations to Bryony Kimmings on her powerful and fully immersive performance which received a well-deserved standing ovation from a very appreciative audience.

Sitting on a bare stage are four white sheets covering the set elements for I’m A Phoenix, Bitch; we hear screaming, as Bryony Kimmings (actress and writer) comes running onto the stage in an orange sequin dress and blonde wig – this is past Bryony.

Instantly breaking the fourth wall, “imagine if I opened the show like that”, Bryony jumps into talking to the audience like we are old friends; telling us about what we can expect tonight.

As each set element is gradually revealed, I’m a Phoenix, Bitch, tells the story of past Bryony’s journey to present Bryony.

Her journey of falling in love, her self-doubt around motherhood and pregnancy, her spiral into post-natal depression, her child’s neurological condition that led to a complete psychotic breakdown and relationship breakup and finally how she managed to claw her way back from all of the trauma.

Sounds dark doesn’t it…and, to be honest, it is.

But it is also deeply funny, deeply moving, surrealist, intelligent and poetic.

One brilliant 75-90min piece of theatre (Bryony admits she runs over time – I am not upset by this at all).

Bryony’s use of visual effects, characterisation and song are what makes this work so special.

Her voice and original compositions are so good, I want to put in a request for a soundtrack.

This show houses the most perfect mix of light and shade.

Opening with laughs and lightness before plunging you into the depths of despair and her shocking reality before gently, and oh so poignantly, pulling you back into hope and light.

This work made me laugh and cry. Bryony Kimmings is a genius and wonder woman and I would watch this show ten times over.

It is quite legitimately one of the best pieces of theatre I have ever seen and will stay with me for a long time.

5 stars ****

I am a Phoenix, Bitch takes you from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows as you are pulled into a time during Bryony’s life when the best and worst things to happen in life are transpiring simultaneously.

Bryony’s way of emotively engaging the audience as she takes them step-by-step through a carefully crafted, unique and quirky way of storytelling is the most real and raw depiction of the human mind seen on stage.

Her comedic flavour brings out laughter in the most unexpected moments and her attention to detail is what brings the story to life.

There was laughter, there were tears, there were WTF OMG moments… you could not help but cheer loudly in the moment when you saw the Phoenix rise.

Her story left a feeling of triumph, like you had just sprinted the track of life in the Olympics, but the memory of the pain endured through training was still there.

People who have been on a similar journey of darkness could relate, those who are parents could feel the heartbreak, those who have loved passionately and lost knew the pain.

This show is a must-see, Bryony was superb in her delivery, in 90 minutes you felt as though you knew her.

She is a stellar performer and epic storyteller.

I really enjoyed the performance which was quite different to other theatre which I attend and was performed by a very talented artist.