Edinburgh Fringe 2026
You and Me (and whoever comes next)
A Patch of Blue productions
Genre: New Writing, Political, Theatre, True-life
Venue: Summerhall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
New writing developed in partnership with Theatre Royal Plymouth which takes a real-life story to explore not only the problems with support systems for disabled people in the UK today but also how care can be expressed in many different ways and be needed in unlikely places.
Review
Keron is a young disabled man. He needs a full time personal assistant to live independently and have the fulfilling life he wants. Over time he has had to put up with some really dodgy carers – the needy, the know-alls and the clock watchers. When Dani walks through his front door, despite her nervousness and lack of experience, she seems to be the PA of his dreams and he works hard to be the ideal client. Has he found the right You for him or will Keron be destined to always be training up the one who comes after the disaster?
As is often the case at the Fringe this is a true life story performed by the person it happened to, Keron Day (you may recognise him from his TV appearances). You and Me (and the one who comes next) might become an uncomfortable experience for both performer and viewer but Day and his co-writer (and director) Alex Howarth have struck the right balance. Apt for the subject of the play great care is taken of Day and us as an audience so that although we see the humiliation, loss of dignity and sometimes violence that actually happened to Keron, we feel held in a safe space. Day’s skill is presenting Keron, the man who lived it, while being clear that he is performing this role. We get comfort breaks when Day and fellow actor Lauren Koster (playing Dani) step out of their roles to look after each other. There is a lot of humour too in this witty script (a third writer Helen Chong is also credited) and Day has great comic timing with some zinging one-liners.
All the performances were strong but kudos to Martha Walker (actor, vocalist and musician) for her rapid multi-roling hat swaps. Musician Merle Powell-Smith is the fourth company member and her live soundscape complements the mood of the spoken word and the pace of the drama. If there is an opportunity to revisit the text, tempting though it is when writing from personal experience to pack a lot of incidents in, less could be more if key moments are given more breathing space.
This is a very strong piece of new writing which stands as good theatre in its own right, but it has a strong message too, shining a light on a system which is barely held together by the sticky tape of goodwill of those who go above and beyond. It deserves a tour beyond this Fringe.
