Burgess Hill playwright with ADHD brings Edinburgh Fringe hit to Hurstpierpoint

Megan Rebecca Roberts, 26, said there will be four performances of Buzzing Anonymous at the Players Theatre on Thursday and Friday, November 17-18 (7.30pm and 8.45pm both days).

Megan has a first class degree in World Performance from East 15 Acting School and plays a character in the show.

“It’s a half-hour play that follows six individuals at an ADHD support group,” she said. “This particular episode tackles relationships and the strain ADHD has on them.”

Megan got the idea for Buzzing Anonymous after attending an ADHD support group in Brighton and took the show to Edinburgh in August, doing 11 performances over four days.

She said: “It was absolutely amazing. I did a classic ADHD thing of leaving it until the last minute and basically set up a production and got it all sorted within three months.”

“We had an overwhelmingly positive response with people from the neurodivergent community,” she added.

The play looks at a group of characters who all have ADHD as a ‘baseline’ with other conditions. One character has her own pottery business and OCD. One is unemployed and cannot see her child. One 16-year-old girl has a lot of responsibility to take on. One male character is from a privileged upbringing but wants to be a drummer. Another character has autism and wants to to develop his social skills.

Megan grew up in Burgess Hill, attending St Wilfrid’s Primary School and St Paul’s Catholic College before going to Central Sussex College in Haywards Heath. She was diagnosed with ADHD at age 20 after years of not knowing why she found everything difficult. She was misdiagnosed with depression as a teenager but later saw a specialist who had done her Master’s and PHD in female presenting ADHD.

Megan said: “Quite often with females it goes under the radar and is misdiagnosed because we’re better at ‘masking’, presenting normally in front of others.”

Some ADHD symptoms listed by the NHS are: difficulty concentrating, hyperactivity, carelessness, forgetfulness, an inability to deal with stress and ‘extreme impatience’.

“The easiest way to summarise it is anything that involves ‘adulting’,” said Megan, adding that she wants to spread awareness of the condition.

People can buy tickets from www.ticketsource.co.uk/redroad-theatre-productions.