Ruby Wax tours new show to Chesterfield in ongoing campaign to remove the stigma of mental health

Ruby will visit the Winding Wheel Theatre on Saturday, September 30, 2023, for a stage adaptation of her new book I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was.

In 2022, Ruby went on a search to find meaning. She booked a series of potentially life-changing journeys. In the Dominican Republic, she went swimming with humpback whales, she joined a Christian monastery; in Greece, she worked in a refugee camp; in California, she did a silent 30-day mindfulness retreat.

The search to find meaning was about to take her in a different direction, no longer journeying in the outside world but within her own mind, and this inner journey would turn out to be the most life-changing journey of all.

Ruby said: “The original idea behind this show was based on the extreme journeys that I wanted to take in order to find an antidote to living a frazzled life. Along the way I wanted to find meaning, peace, happiness - the stuff we’re all chasing. However, after some transcendent experiences, I ended up in a mental institution. Obviously, I didn’t find what I was looking for.”

Directed by writer and an Olivier Award-winning director Clare Lizzimore, I'm Not as Well as I Thought I Was, will see Ruby pushing boundaries, and making her mark as one of the most important voices in mental health today.

Ruby’s career has taken her from the Royal Shakespeare Company to prime-time TV; from a master's degree in mindfulness based cognitive therapy from Oxford University to best-selling author; from interviewing Donald Trump before he became president and was a real estate tycoon to delivering a ground-breaking TED Talk. And from a mental health campaigner to being awarded an OBE for services to mental health.

She also holds Honorary Doctorates from the School of Psychology at The University of East London University of Staffordshire and Bangor University. She has been awarded a City Lit Lifetime Fellowship and was recently appointed Chancellor of Southampton University.

A mindfulness course that Ruby runs online is described as a workout for the brain. And her website signposts people to where they can get help from trained professionals.

Tickets cost £28.20 for Ruby Wax – I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was. Go to www.chesterfieldtheatres.co.uk. The presentation is aimed at 18+ years.