Award-winning solo play about rave culture, grief and finding your way back to yourself comes home to London
Following a three-week run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a subsequent run at Brighton Fringe, Life Would Be Pretty Dull Without Sex, Raves and MDMA finally comes to London for two performances at the Bread and Roses Theatre in Clapham as part of Lambeth Fringe 2026.
Written and performed by London-born and bred Bex Wall, and co-written with Sarah Asante Gregory, this bold, funny and deeply personal solo play takes audiences on a journey through 90s rave culture, grief, memory, motherhood, midlife and the search for something that makes life feel truly alive.
Winner of the Keep It Fringe Award 2025, the play has continued to evolve since its Edinburgh run, with new material developed for Brighton and now brought back to the city that is such an important part of its story. The work was originally supported through research and development funding from Arts Council of Wales.
Set against the euphoria and excess of the 90s rave scene, Life Would Be Pretty Dull Without Sex, Raves and MDMA follows Bex, a fortysomething woman navigating the complicated territory of midlife, memory and loss. As she looks back at the person she was and the life she has created, she finds herself caught between the safety of adulthood and the wild freedom of the dancefloor.
Featuring iconic tracks by Orbital, the play fuses storytelling with the energy and emotional release of the club, transporting audiences between the intimacy of personal memory and the collective abandon of the rave.
At the heart of the story is Bex’s relationship with her deceased brother — a presence that runs throughout the piece. Their imagined conversations move between the playful, tender and raw as Bex confronts grief, survival, identity and what it means to let go while still holding on.
For Bex, bringing the play back to London has an added significance. Since its original creation and Edinburgh run, she has undergone cancer treatment, including chemotherapy, making the journey back to the stage a very personal one.
After Edinburgh and Brighton, she is delighted to finally bring the play home.
“This story comes from somewhere real,” says Bex Wall. “It’s about the weird, unspoken places grief takes us and how music, madness and human connection can carry us through. I was born and bred in London, so there’s something really special about bringing this play back here. If you were raving in London in the 90s, I think there are going to be lots of things in this story that feel familiar.”
Co-writer Sarah Asante Gregory says:
“We’ve created something raw and ridiculous, but also deeply human. It’s not about tidy answers — it’s about being seen in the mess.”
And Phil Hartnoll of Orbital comments:
“Bex’s stories are unhinged, unfiltered and bloody hilarious.”
Unapologetic, energetic and emotionally charged, Life Would Be Pretty Dull Without Sex, Raves and MDMA is a story about the things we lose, the things we hold onto, and the moments that remind us we’re still alive.
Following its Lambeth Fringe performances, Bex hopes to take the play on tour around the UK in 2027.
PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Lambeth Fringe 2026
Wednesday 21 October & Thursday 22 October 2026
9:00pm
Bread and Roses Theatre
68 Clapham Manor Street
London SW4 6DZ
Writer & Performer: Bex Wall
Co-Writer: Sarah Asante GregoryTickets:https://lambethfringe.com/events/life-would-be-pretty-dull-without-sex-raves-and-mdma
