That's Not My Name

Absolutely feral, That's Not My Name is a courageous and unashamed account of mental illness and the struggle with finding help. At times incredibly funny, other times shocking, Sammy does exactly what you hope for when you come to an Edinburgh Fringe show - this show takes risks and it pays off massively. Daring, entertaining and insightful - whatever you make of it, it is sure to start conversations. Highly recommend.

Such an amazing show, I have no idea how to categorise it but it's beautiful. A true reflection of the mind of someone stuck in a system I'll equipped for it's purpose. A system I worked in.
I recognise so much of Sammy's incredible performance, writing, and even physical traits so strongly from my time in that field that I often had to remind myself I wasn't actually back there again.

Despite the raw accuracy and individual experience being told, this show also provides great fun, many laughs and entertainment throughout

If I'd seen this show on my first day at the fringe rather than my last, I would have been back every night until I left.

If you have even a passing interest in the world of mental health issues, go and see this show. Experiences won't get any more real than this

I went to this production because of all the positive audience reviews and I was disappointed, I'm not sure how they can have seen the same show.

It didn't say anything much at all, it was self-indulgent noise. Perhaps others find that interesting but it was not for me.

Absolutely incredible show in which I was moved to tears, surprised, engrossed and just mesmerised. Cannot stop thinking about the back story that led to this wonderful, 100 mile an hour production and I fully encourage anyone interested to go see for yourself. Best festival show I’ve ever seen since attending the brilliant Trainspotting a few years ago.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Written and performed by Sammy Trotman, That's Not My Name, almost defies description. The character, who seems to be based on the performer, has a manic energy based on mental illness, meaning that anything can happen, with a range of styles including speaking in verse and prose, dancing, singing, running and audience participation. It is a messy, chaotic show, which isn't for everyone, but sometimes wildly entertaining for anyone ready for anything, despite the feeling that it might be a freak show.

A truly sublime piece that devastates all theatrical conventions and truly questions what exactly it is we as an audience are watching. What may appear on the surface to be a beautifully self-indulging/destructive chaotic mess, it holds a wealth of complexity that will leave you in stunned silence as you exit the theatre trying to process and understand all that has happened. The performance energy displayed on stage by the performers leaves me in complete disbelief at how they do it every day. This show is constantly unpredictable with moments that are uncomfortable, shocking and absolutely hilarious but mostly somehow all three at once. This is an urgent show that truly embodies everything that the fringe is about and is an absolute must see.

A wild and utterly rambunctious show; Sammy gets deep and personal. She makes you think, laugh & contemplate society’s misguided approach to understanding the people within it and its seeming obsession with placing people in a box. This show takes the audience for a ride and the chaotic nature of Sammy’s performance is truly something to behold and keeps you, the audience, engaged throughout.

It's strong, clever, surprising, honest and shocking for some?

As a psychologist and neurodivergent, I think it's the best insight into "mental illnesses" I've ever seen in a performance.

That's Fringe at its best!

I'm not going to be able to sum this one up in a review. Just tell you about the experience of going to it. Key point: it's the one I'm most glad I went to, and that's in a strong field this year. Very personal and intimate, with some really important things in there about real experience of mental health diagnoses that ought to be heard and understood widely. And so impressively put together. The stage team had excellent timing, comic and otherwise. I just bloody loved this.

I honestly didn't know what to expect when attending this show, but believe, having seen it, that it is more quietly genius than is to be realised when one first sits down. The performance is both a rebellion against the labelling of a person's identity into a set of consumable acronyms that form a diagnosis, and simultaneously a punch-in-the-gut whirlwind tour of what it's like to actually have these conditions.

At first glance, the piece seems unstructured, almost chaotic, but stepping back, one realises that this in itself is a parable for psychological disorders. Sammy takes us on a harrowing and confrontational journey that as someone with a personality disorder myself, both made me feel seen and quietly validated: there was nothing there that I could not relate to on a personal level. The shock factor is part of the point. This is not grippy-sock-holiday expensive psych ward talk: this is the torch-in-your-face to make sure you've not self-harmed/unalived in the night every hour performance. This to me was a wonderfully refreshing, brutal and honest display of the kind of things those who don't experience it, would love those of us that do to hide away and never talk about, but Sammy's performance, unrepentant and free of pretentiousness, disallows any of that. Gods love the bold few that create theatre that is both this gloriously confrontational and unconventional, and does so using oneself as the sacrificial lamb. Recommended. (Though you might want to bring a friend, just in case!)

As someone with direct experience of mental illness, I found this show extremely offensive and a disservice to the issues it claimed to address. The performance lacked structure, coherence, and any meaningful dramaturgy. The use of audience participation was poorly executed, feeling unsafe, unnecessary, and ultimately a waste of time. It was difficult to watch, but not in a thought-provoking way. The actress displayed no empathy, and much of what she said and did was nonsensical. I attended with high expectations due to the positive reviews, but I left feeling bored, disappointed, and somewhat angry.

One of the most eye opening, thought provoking pieces of theatre we've seen in our many years of visiting the Fringe. A fast paced, whirlwind exploration of a mental disorder. Occasionally difficult to watch, but that's the whole point. If you like edgy yet real shows, this is absolutely for you. Faultless performance from start to finish.

This is a show that makes it look easy. Mad, high energy, purposeful, moving, and easy to get invested in. Hard to categorise, but if you like one-person shows, you mustn't miss this - it's a show driven by an absolutely electric (and often unpredictable) lead performance from Sammy Trotman, underpinned by the heft of her meaningful, powerful and personal writing. This is unmissable theatre.

For a show about defying labels, this show absolutely defies labels - anything you could say about it is contradictory to other aspects: playful and hard-hitting, silly and serious, beautiful and ridiculous and rage-inducing.
It's challenging for sure, but it should be: the topic of psychiatry as part of the capitalist system should be challenged. We should be asking who exactly is making personality disorder diagnoses, why the diagnostic criteria in the DSM 5 are so dehumanising, why it's seen as morally defective to seek attention, nurturing and help.
Covered in Jam give an absolutely stonking performance, cannot be put in a box and are well worth the ticket price! Go see it already!

What a performance!
It will make you want to cry, laugh and angry at the same time.

If you've ever been diagnosed, stuffed into a box or a label you didn't fit in, this show is for you. I can only describe it as the most fun I've ever had while watching a nervous breakdown happen in real time. There is nothing else like it out there.

This review was reported and removed after review by a Moderator.