Rita Lynn, The Life Coach Who Wanted to Die

After a 3 and half-year-run on Emmerdale that was tragically ended by a fictional car crash, Louise Marwood started to design a car crash of her own and inspired by her wild endeavours she took to writing and so was born Rita Lynn – a hilariously dark cautionary tale following Imogen, a spiralling addict, who is teetering over rock bottom.

She has the lot – toxic boyfriend, weekend overdoses, waning dance career. In a moment of drug-fuelled madness, Imogen convinces a wealthy, depressed housewife that Rita Lynn, her recently invented alter ego, should be her life coach. Sounds like madness?

It is, it was and it will be.

Charting Imogen’s descent into addiction we encounter an eccentric entourage of characters, Dexter – her lover and enabler, Melian – drag queen, prescription drug addict, best friend and Buddy – Dexter’s son and the real love of Imogen’s life.

Although light on the surface, this show is about the real-life struggle of addiction and hidden underneath the comic facade is the dark soul of this show. A story of near misses, loss, grief and trauma.

It captures the fearlessness of facing a problem straight on and plays the line between comedy and tragedy perfectly through the lightning-paced, challenging writing and performance of its creator Louise Marwood, a person who is brave enough to say she lost it all.

Rita Lynn is a universal story told through the lens of Louise’s personal story, it holds a microscope up to the human condition, the affliction of addiction and weighs the real cost of becoming a drug addict at the age of thirty-eight. At its heart it has a wish, a hope and a prayer – if she can recover, anyone can.