Review: Dahlia Lesh's STRINGS ATTACHED at the Ottawa Fringe Festival

Dahlia Lesh and Marianna Kokkinos. Photo by Liz Picasso.

Strings Attached is a gut-wrenching two-person play that explores themes of mental illness. The show delves into how it feels to have a monster in your head. Even as you attempt to rationalize and to fight against it, it haunts every waking moment, filling your head with feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing.

We meet a young woman (Dahlia Lesh), in the midst recounting a happy memory, reflecting on the freedom her childhood afforded her. Freedom from suffering, freedom from the belief that the world is inherently good, freedom from abuse, freedom from the pain that she now inflicts upon herself in order to feel anything at all. Constantly at her side is the monster inside her head (Marianna Kokkinos), who taunts and demeans her, dashing all hope, and convincing her that there is only one way out.

Read my full review here and see what else is at the Ottawa Fringe Festival here.