Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Right Before I Go
Feuille Dooley Productions
Genre: Theatre, Theatrical Storytelling
Venue: Pleasance at the Dome
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Stan Zimmerman, writer of Golden Girls and Gilmore Girls, had a friend who committed suicide. His friend wrote a note to his friends, which eventually was produced at the funeral. Between the suicide and his funeral, Zimmerman became obsessed with suicide notes and collated a number of them to produce this show. It acts as a homage to those people who have found that life is too much. The telling of the tale includes ordinary people as much as it does recognisable names.
Review
Stan Zimmerman with a group of actors take the stage all in black, sitting on stools with music stands in front of them and a script to be read through. If ever there was a production that was haunting this is it. As I got up out my seat and left, I walked through the Pleasant Dome foyer, got to the outside air and realised that there was something dripping on my top. Once I had hit the fresh air, my tears began to stop, but the memory of what I had witness stayed with me since then and has continued with me.
This is a profound piece of theatre. Zimmerman’s quest is to have a conversation sparked up between those who feel that suicide may be their only option and those who would not want that option to be taken up. He has brought together some famous and some not so famous suicide notes that in their simplicity are so effective.
In a roll call of no particular order, we hear of Ralph Barton, Ida Craddock, Misao Fujimura, David Foster Wallace, Bill Zeller, Daniel Summers, Peg Entwistle, George Sanders, Virginia Woolf, Hunter S. Thompson, Christine Chubbuck, Kurt Cobain through Courtney Love, then Angelina Green, 14, Amanda Todd, 15, Kate Von Roeder, trans woman, Stephen, a 16-year-old gay man, and Kevin Gill, Zimmerman’s friend. In amongst there were stories of a 14 year old, a 15 year old and a 16 year old gay man which stuck. The telling, however of Von Roeder and the frantic attempts to get to her – all in vain – struck home. It really did.
This is a performance without artifice, lighting states, complex costume changes or sets that fly in and out. It tells the story of Zimmerman’s quest, his friendship and homage and the simple last words of humans. Beautiful human beings, flawed, uncertain, lacking confidence or simply done. I have identification there.
There is a rotating cast of actors who have given their time and in a sense the value you place upon this production is lost in amongst the fact as told that that every 20 seconds somebody in the world takes their own life. It is highlighted by the fact that LGBTQ or ethnic minorities are much higher risks. In Scotland the greatest danger zone of suicide is young men. We have lost generations of young men due to an inability to access to offer the support they need and that’s what I took away from this.
There’s little point of me telling how good they were. I cried. That’s how effective the whole thing was.
As a package it worked so well because it’s so simple. It’s the power of the words that penetrate. And so, they should. We should all be awake and alive to the possibility that those around us have struggles.
As someone who has not always got it right, I this beautiful, haunting, horrific testimony to people feeling alone and lonely, felt a clarion cry to those of us who might have an opportunity to step in and say please don’t, hold a hand out and just say, talk to me. I need to get better. We need to get better. We need to help our fellow man, woman and non-binary humans to get better. And societies must be judged on that way before their GDP or exam results. Privilege to watch. Terrifying and comforting in equal measure. The power of theatre, eh?
SAMARITANS 116 123 https://www.samaritans.org/scotland/
