CHATTERBOX Comes to Edinburgh Fringe in July

Chatterbox comes to Edinburgh Fringe this summer.

One minute she was “stupid” for not speaking English – then she was chastised as a “chatterbox” for speaking it too much.

In the second instalment of a planned trilogy on life growing up as a first-generation immigrant from Pakistan living in 1970s Glasgow, actress, comedian and writer Lubna Kerr looks back to her primary school days.

Fresh off the plane, after her Dad was given a PhD place studying chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, she was dressed up in a uniform and sent off to school.

Bizarrely Lubna was damned for not already speaking the language – though she didn’t think any the less of other people for not knowing Urdu.

But it was a problem she swiftly overcame. Only to find this attracted fresh criticism.

And so it went on.

Chatterbox is a humorous and touching semi-autobiographical one-woman show looking at the impact of the labels we are given as children, and how they persist into adulthood. 

• What labels were you given? 

• How did they affect you? 

• Do they still make you anxious? 

• Where did you find safety when neds chased you down the street? 

Lubna, who now lives in Edinburgh, says: “Chatterbox looks back with affection to a childhood as part of a loving family determined to contribute to Scotland and their community.

“At the same time it raises questions that will resonate with many people, of every background, about unfair treatment and labelling and how it can affect our whole lives.”

There will also be a special performance as part of Edinburgh Deaf Festival 15 August (with BSL interpreter) – see https://edinburghdeaffestival.com

Chatterbox is the prequel to Tickbox (and the extended version Tickbox 2).

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