One audience member at a time, for 45 minutes, in a room dressed like a hospital ward. That is the premise of I’m Ready to Talk Now, an award-winning piece created and performed by Australian artist Oliver Ayres, and it is as bold and unusual as it sounds. Developed in Melbourne before arriving at the Traverse for its UK premiere, the show has already drawn acclaim for its innovation, but to experience it first-hand is something else entirely.
You are welcomed gently, even tenderly. The host tucks you into a bed, adjusts the space for your comfort, and slips headphones over your ears. What follows is a guided immersion into his own story, spoken in his voice, paced by his movements around the room. At times he is by your side, at times he drifts into shadow, and once, when he gazes out of the window, it feels almost like an out-of-body moment, as if you are seeing through his eyes while your body remains behind in the bed.
The sound design is transporting. The room fills with the atmosphere of night on a hospital ward: monitors, silence, then sudden intrusions. In total darkness, the experience sharpens, empathy takes over, and you begin to inhabit what Ayres himself once endured. For all the technical layering, projection, sound, light, the effect is less cerebral than visceral. The word that lingers is empathy. This is not pity, nor detached observation, but an embodied encounter with another person’s experience.
There is also extraordinary care in how Ayres adapts the show to different needs. Before starting, he takes time to ask about sensitivities: claustrophobia, sensory triggers, accessibility preferences. Performances can be captioned, low-sensory, or adjusted in real time if anything becomes overwhelming. It is striking not just that this is offered, but that it feels entirely genuine. You are being looked after. That generosity of spirit permeates the piece.
Social media has been abuzz with accounts from those who’ve taken part: people describing it as “life-changing,” “the most moving 45 minutes of the Fringe,” or “the first time I’ve ever felt truly inside someone else’s story.” And the reaction is not surprising. The intimacy of one-to-one theatre makes the performance feel less like spectacle and more like conversation, or even confession.
There are practical realities too. Unlike most performers who deliver their show once a day and spend the rest of the time seeing others, Ayres is running up to ten hours daily in this singular encounter, without respite. You sense the strain in his body, the fatigue behind his eyes, but also the commitment: each participant deserves his full attention, and he gives it. That alone is remarkable.
If there is a drawback, it is that the 45-minute duration and the one-audience-member format make it an experience few can access compared to a conventional show. Yet perhaps that is the point. This is theatre scaled down to its most personal, where scarcity is not a flaw but a feature.
I’m Ready to Talk Now is innovative, empathetic, and profoundly human. It asks you not just to watch but to inhabit. For that, it earns four stars, and a place among the most memorable experiments of this year’s Fringe.
Times Vary – check venue – Till 24th August
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/2025IMREADZ
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 17th August 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Running time – 45mins