Bedwetter
You’ve heard the jokes about bedwetters, but have you ever listened to the stories? Tamlynn Bryson recounts her sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious true story of becoming a woman while still feeling like a child.
June
- Sun
- Mon
- Tue
- Wed
- Thu
- Fri
- Sat
- 1
-
2
- 9:00 pm
-
3
- 2:30 pm
-
4
-
5
- 5:30 pm
-
6
-
7
- 7:45 pm
-
8
-
9
- 10:00 pm
-
10
- 1:00 pm
Is bedwetting as a teenager funny? Of course…in retrospect. And that’s what BEDWETTER is: Tamlyn Bryson’s comedic treatment of her trials as a child who grows into her teenage years still wetting her bed, and the humiliations and embarrassments of keeping this a secret from her friends and schoolmates.
From her adult vantage point, she can now laugh–and makes us laugh–about situations that were clearly painful to experience at earlier ages.
She shifts effectively and seamlessly from storytelling, direct audience address, and hilariously dramatized vignettes, and does so with an impeccable sense of timing–not a beat is wasted.
The writing is equally effective and efficient: a great deal of life is packed into an hour. It’s highly imaginative, too: you won’t soon forget the image of diapers as soldiers going into battle or the deliberately bad punning on their brand names or the cruel mockumentaries on how best to conceal one’s bedwetting while at a slumber party or at camp.
As with all good comedic art, there is a serious side: on a deeper level this show is about body acceptance, not only acceptance by society but also by the person whose body it is.
In sum: an excellent show by an excellent performer!
Tamlynn Bryson had a Deep Dark Secret (her term) for the first 15 years of her life.
She was a Bedwetter.
In practical terms, it meant she wore a diaper to bed every night. It also meant she was subjected to interrogations from her parents (“are you too lazy to get up and go to the washroom?”), merciless teasing from children who found out her secret and even the stigma associated with bed-wetting in popular culture.
Bryson’s tales of furtively hiding diapers in secret spaces in bags for sleepovers and summer camps are mined for laughs but the heartbreak is palpable nonetheless. The moment she realized that she wouldn’t have to wear a tampon to bed because the diaper did the same job, made the laughs catch in the throat,
What makes Bedwetter so compelling is how Bryson’s strength powers through all of it. She was a brave little girl, teenager and now woman. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Bryson learned that by living it.
This could all have been enormously sad and uncomfortable except for Bryon. She powers through Bedwetter with superb comic timing and alternately, raw candor.
By the time she is brave enough to confide her Deep Dark Secret to others, she is astonished to find that no one cares. Because why would they? The things that torment us as children make us laugh when we’re older.
Who knew?
Bedwetter is a must-see.
London Fringe — Bedwetter: Not-So-Dry Humour About Growing Up Leaky
Out of tragedy comes comedy. And though a childhood — and well into the teen years — filled with bedwetting may not be the classic definition of tragedy, for any youth going through it, it would be a devastating, confidence-draining experience.
Fortunately, Tamlynn Bryson came out of her experience stronger, more confident, and able to look back with a laugh at her experience. And Fringe goers are all the richer for the experience.
Bedwetter is a wonderfully crafted, funny, and touching coming of age story that features the added complication of a life filled with bed wetting. Bryson, and her cowrite Kyle Kimmerly, take us through a series of vignettes, explaining how Bryson dealt with potentially embarrassing situations, and how she went from a confident, proud youth who embraced her situation, to a frustrated teen looking at future without dry nights.
From boyfriends, to sleepovers, to buying diapers in the pharmacy, Bryson shares her tales with grace, flair, and humour. She connects immediately with the audience and reinforces that connection throughout the show. She’s clever, quirky, and — most importantly — hilariously funny.
And a interpretive dance number featuring her period to Britney Spears’ I’m Not Just, Not Yet a Woman is something to be seen.
Bryson’s show is another must-see on the circuit. More importantly, Bryson’s one of those artists to watch in the future as her blend of charm, wit, and sensitivity bodes well for many more wonderful stories in the future.
I want to be Tamlynn Bryson, she is such a talented comedic force.