Tana Sirois brings her show UnTethered to Edinburgh Fringe (opening tonight) – I saw it at The Glitch but wanted to get a bit more background about the performer and show.
Where: Fern Studio at Greenside @ George Street
When: 1 – 16 Aug
Ticket link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/untethered
I really enjoyed UnTethered when it ran in London. For those who haven’t seen it, what’s the show about and how did you come to write it?
UnTethered is about the universal desire to be seen and loved for who we are. It is an autobiographical comedy about my experience as a queer, demisexual woman with OCD trying to find love.
In a way, UnTethered acts as social experiment: If I lay bare what I consider to be the most flawed, unlovable version of myself, am I still deserving of love?
In 2022, I moved from NYC to London to get my MSc in Creative Arts & Mental Health. UnTethered began as a ten-minute solo piece I wrote for a class called “Performing the Self”.
I had just recently been diagnosed with OCD, and UnTethered became a way for me to work through my confusion towards a place where I could communicate my experience and commit to, (or tether to), this new element of my identity.
The interesting twist here, is that my MSc took a very critical view of mainstream psychiatry and really challenged the diagnostic framework and the very concept of diagnosis.
Initially, this was very difficult for me to wrap my head around. When I learned I had OCD, I experienced a great deal of relief in having found an explanation for “why I am the way I am.”
After fourteen years, I finally had the vocabulary to discuss my experience, and suddenly, I was being asked to question the validity of the very terminology that was bringing me peace.
Unmoored and frustrated, I clung to my OCD diagnosis with white knuckles. Over the period of time in which I developed this show, an interesting thing happened. My OCD symptoms became less intense.
The OCD cycles were shorter, less frequent, and far less exhausting — I suspect this is because in creating the show, I had expanded my awareness of how OCD operates and reached a somewhat radical level of acceptance.
My OCD was no longer interfering with daily tasks, and I was not spending an hour or more a day engaging in mental compulsions… which begs the question, Should I continue to identify as someone who has OCD?
Should I be performing UnTethered?”
The answer, of course, is yes. OCD still affects me. I still get triggered and blindsided by catastrophic thinking, but I am getting better at navigating my way off the merry-go-round of psychological mayhem.
The diagnostic system is largely categorical, meaning that you either have a mental disorder or you don’t, but the symptoms of mental illness often lie on a spectrum.
I suppose I am bringing this up, because I think the themes of UnTethered will resonate with people, even if they don’t have OCD.
Around 20% of people experience OCD symptoms in their lives without meeting diagnostic criteria. Viewing mental illness as something you are either branded with or free from can be problematic.
I think the temptation to categorize and label, and cling to a fixed identity is so intoxicating because it provides an illusion of control over the human experience. (Which, by the way, is exactly what OCD attempts to do.)
But isn’t life better when we are free to expand?
The fluidity I’m seeking doesn’t just apply to diagnosis — I identify as sapiosexual and demisexual, (meaning, I am attracted to all genders, and I require a close emotional bond prior to experiencing sexual attraction).
But does that mean that if I wake up one day, and meet someone who makes me want to immediately tear their clothes off, I need to refrain or risk redesigning my identity?
I have always viewed myself as someone who championed fluidity, but the temptation to categorize — to place humans and experiences into tiny restrictive boxes still snuck up on me.
The most significant element of my healing journey has been the acceptance of continuous change coupled with an ongoing acknowledgement that control is an illusion.
UnTethered explores the power of claiming an identity and simultaneously being willing to let it all go.
The title of this play — UnTethered — was originally intended to represent a very unwelcome feeling of psychic unraveling.
Over the past year, the title has transformed to represent a transcendent experience of boundless evolution and release.
Have you made any tweaks for this Edinburgh run? And what might audiences expect?
This show has played in Istanbul, Brighton, twice in NYC, twice in London, and will now run in Edinburgh to 16 Aug.
The most meaningful part of this entire experience has been connecting with audience members who saw an element of their life reflected in the production, and I’ve allowed these post-show conversations to influence what parts of the story I’ve chosen to embellish or specify.
The script has changed quite drastically with each run. My relationship with my OCD is constantly evolving, as well, and the process of weaving new layers of understanding into the show has been cognitively invigorating.
One reviewer described the show as “emotional whiplash”, which I think is pretty accurate. I’ve tried to write something that is fun, self-aware, honest, educational, challenging and above all, a piece that ignites genuine connection with the audience.
I’m far too close to the show to know if I’ve succeeded, but I hope at least some these intentions come through.
Do you enjoy working as a solo performer? How did you make a start in the business?
I really do not enjoy working as a solo performer! I never intended this play to have a puppeteer or include audience interaction, (to be honest, when I’m at the theatre as a spectator, I absolutely hate being asked to participate)!
I wanted to write a one-woman show that I could easily perform alone, but somehow, I made a show with 91 cues that requires an additional performer on stage and a wizard in the tech booth!
(There is a metaphor here somewhere, about an individualistic approach to mental health and healing being less effective than a community-driven, collective approach, but I’ll leave that alone for now.)
Almost all my previous work has been grounded in collaboration, and while I did find the experience of creating a show alone to be powerful in terms of discovering my artistic voice, I found the process of focusing on myself to this extent quite torturous.
UnTethered came alive for me when Polina Ionina came on board as Director, and we were able to play together, which was about ten months into the development of this piece.
Performing a show with this level of vulnerability requires an environment where I feel safe to let go, and I would not have been able to do that without a director who intentionally created a space for exploration, emotional processing, and perpetual refinement.
I’ve been asked a few times if it was hard to turn this project over to someone else, and to be honest, I never felt as though that was happening. I feel as though Polina and I have been working in tandem, towards the same vision since day one.
Perhaps our artistic voices are naturally harmonious, or perhaps her directorial talents lend themselves perfectly to support autobiographical work, but UnTethered doesn’t feel like my piece anymore, it feels like ours.
This has been a beautiful process that happened naturally, and I am incredibly grateful to no longer be doing this on my own.
I’ve been working as an actor since I was four years old, and as a director/producer since I was 17, so I really can’t remember a time when my life did not revolve around creating and performing theatrical work.
I’ve done my fair share of mainstream work (musical theatre, Shakespeare, summer stock, UK tours of Neil Simon plays, etc. etc.,), but the projects that have really lit my soul on fire have always been the wild cards.
The original shows, the devised work, the projects that feels dangerous, exciting, groundbreaking and challenging as hell.
What are you looking forward to the most in Edinburgh?
I am really looking forward to connecting with other artists and being inspired by daring work! I’ve marketed UnTethered as a mass dating event (and in a sense, it is).
UnTethered is about the process of attempting to find love by showing up as your most genuine, ever-changing self, but of course it is really about the journey towards loving the self, and not so much about finding love in another…
Having said that, I have a suspicion that Edinburgh Fringe might be the perfect place to connect with other queer, artsy folx who hold a deep appreciation for the willingness to be vulnerable and foolish, so perhaps I’ll find love after all.
Polina and I will also be using this two-week period to begin devising our next show titled At The End Of It All — a movement theatre piece that seeks to protest individualism and celebrate chosen family through an apocalyptic rager…
I am super excited for that.
What’s next for the show?
In a very cool full-circle moment, UnTethered has been written into this year’s Creative Arts & Mental Health MSc curriculum at Queen Mary University, so I will be performing it for the 2025/2026 cohort in October.
I hold a deep respect for the course leaders, and being invited back to my university to perform a fully realized version of UnTethered is a huge honor.
Aside from that, we are open to and excited for any performance opportunities that come our way after our run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival!