REVIEW: The Misfortunes of a Spy and Her Mystic, EdFringe 2026 ★★

A mental health worker with a new client, except the client doesn’t know she’s a patient; the premise of The Misfortunes of a Spy and Her Mystic is intriguing and, apparently, based on real events, however the show falters in its execution.

‘She’s crazy’ has long been used as an excuse to lock away or control women who don’t submit to societal expectations and conditioning, and the case of Britney made public how guardianships are used in this context even today.

Meda, the patient (and mystic) – in The Misfortunes… is being threatened with such a guardianship by her parents who claim that she’s a danger to herself and others, and mental health worker Eve (the spy) is hired by them to befriend Meda and feed back information. Uncomfortable with this assignment from the beginning, Eve still goes along with it as she needs the money, and a deeper bond soon starts to form between the two women.

Cutting back and forth between their interactions and scenes of Eve reporting back to her superior, this play shows us three women who are all navigating a system that was not built for them. Each finds her own coping strategies – in Meda’s case, spirituality which is used by others as proof that she is not mentally well. The play never gives a definitive answer as to her actual state, whether her parents’ concern is genuine or a grasping for control, and there is something powerful in allowing us to make up our own minds.

However, whilst the play brings up several current and important questions and issues, especially regarding women’s mental health and societal judgement around it, it fails to explore them fully. The dialogue is stilted and feels almost forced; characters speak for great lengths which comes across as unnatural and like we are being told things rather than shown them. It’s a play of intellectual ideas being discussed rather than explored through the characters and story. Unfortunately, the often static direction and lack of ambient sound highlight these issues even more.

Whilst it was clear that all three performers are very talented and were doing the best within the confines they’d been given, none of them were fully convincing as the characters they were playing. On several occasions, a character would state how they were feeling in another example of the stilted and unnatural dialogue, and it was only because I was being informed that I knew this was the emotion I was supposed to be picking up.

The show is described as ‘queer-coded’ but even this aspect was handled peculiarly; the relationship between Eve and Meda absolutely developed beyond a friendship, however when they were finally about to kiss, we cut to a blackout and when the lights came back up it was the next morning. A hook-up was implied but never discussed, and for most of the rest of the play they only referred to each other as friends. Love declarations did happen but did not provide clarity and whilst muddled and complicated feelings and relationships are common and, especially with this set-up, to be expected, the confusion did not appear to be intentional but caused by a script that needs editing.

This led to a messy and unsatisfying ending, letting down a strong premise and not allowing the performers to deliver to the best of their abilities. The Misfortunes… could be an important and poignant play but it needs serious rewriting and redirection to allow the story to flow and the characters to come alive.

Recommended Drink: A strong cup of coffee.

You can catch The Misfortunes of a Spy and Her Mystic at Olive Studio at Greenside @ George Street August 7 – 29 (not 16 & 23) at 18:20 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.