Age, angst and expectation: Yolanda Mercy’s Quarter Life Crisis

Ever get the feel­ing life just isn’t going your way? You know: friends tak­ing work in their stride, post­ing hol­i­day pics, start­ing a fam­i­ly, and gen­er­al­ly appear­ing to live life large.

You, mean­while, are still strug­gling to get by – and real­i­ty bites.

Yolan­da Mer­cy’s Quar­ter Life Cri­sis is a stage play about pre­cise­ly this feeling.

“My friend was hav­ing a baby, my cousin was get­ting mar­ried, and I was try­ing to find ways to cheat the sys­tem and keep my Young Per­sons Rail­card,” the actor and play­wright tells Fringe Fre­quen­cy, when asked where the idea for this play came from. “As a result of this, I turned to my lap­top and start­ed to pen my fears of grow­ing up by writ­ing Quar­ter Life Cri­sis.”

Writ­ten and per­formed by Mer­cy, and direct­ed by Jade Lewis, the play explores age angst and gen­er­a­tional expec­ta­tions through the eyes of Niger­ian Lon­don­er, Alicia.

The play was recent­ly select­ed out hun­dreds of appli­cants to receive fund­ing from Under­bel­ly. This fund­ing is going towards help­ing Mer­cy and her com­pa­ny per­form the play at the renowned Edin­burgh Fes­ti­val Fringe this August.

In order to raise the rest of the mon­ey they need to per­form at the Edin­burgh fes­ti­val, Mer­cy and Lewis have start­ed a crowd­fund­ing cam­paign. But more on that later.

“I always try to write from an honest place, which makes it so humbling when an audience says, ‘that’s my story on stage’” – Yolanda Mercy

WHAT’S IN THE SHOW?

“This show is all about hav­ing a good time,” says Lewis, when asked what audi­ences can expect from it.

“You can expect to have a laugh, hear some good rhythms and be a part of the the­atre sto­ry­telling expe­ri­ence. What I love to cre­ate in the­atre is a post-show dia­logue, and I feel Quar­ter Life Cri­sis leaves an audi­ence think­ing as well as want­i­ng to talk about what they have just experienced.”

As well as reflect­ing the mood many young peo­ple in Britain feel, that their future is less cer­tain than their par­ents’ when they were the same age, the play explores iden­ti­ty for young black Brits liv­ing in diaspora.

“I am sec­ond-gen­er­a­tion Niger­ian,” Mer­cy explains. “When­ev­er I say that I feel teary, it’s because it reminds me of the strug­gle my ances­tors must have gone through to move here in the ’60s.

“So, when­ev­er I do my plays, espe­cial­ly Quar­ter Life Cri­sis, I ded­i­cate it to them. ’Cause with­out their strength, I wouldn’t be here mak­ing work. Which is why I val­ue the sto­ries we tell, and under­stand the huge respon­si­bil­i­ty I have when cre­at­ing my shows.”

Lewis adds that today’s social media-obsessed world, where every­one wants to share their lives with every­one else, puts strain on many of us that we don’t discuss.

“It can lead us to real­ly ques­tion our lives and the deci­sions we have made,” she says. “Also, many peo­ple, fam­i­ly and friends, can expect a lot from you and when things don’t go to their plan. You can be left feel­ing low, under­ap­pre­ci­at­ed and hav­ing to prove your­self. These ideas of hav­ing to please oth­ers can be our down­fall, and I think it takes a lot of courage and self-love to rise above that.”

WHY DO THEY NEED MY SUPPORT?

Mer­cy, Lewis and their Lon­don-based cre­ative team have been sup­port­ed by Arts Coun­cil Eng­land to get Quar­ter Life Cri­sis to the place it is now. But Lewis explains that tak­ing the show to Edin­burgh dur­ing fes­ti­val time is a steep cost, even with the fund­ing they cur­rent­ly have.

“Due to Quar­ter Life Cri­sis going to Edin­burgh this means that there are some fund­ing pools that we do not have access to. This is why we have turned to crowd­fund­ing,” Lewis says.

“We also feel that it is a pos­i­tive way to seek funds because we are able to inter­act with our com­mu­ni­ties, net­works and also to bear liv­ing tes­ti­mo­ny to where there is a will, there is a way, which we hope inspir­ers oth­ers. We have also con­tact­ed organ­i­sa­tions and com­pa­nies to seek sup­port for spon­sor­ships and discounts.”

Lewis and Mer­cy have put togeth­er a fund­ing page, and com­pre­hen­sive break­down of what their £4,000 fund­ing goal will be used for. Their cam­paign ends on June 28, and at the time of pub­lish­ing, they’ve raised £585.

Depend­ing on how things go this sum­mer, they say they are hop­ing to put togeth­er an autumn or spring tour for the show.

ENOUGH TALK. WILL THIS HELP ME SOLVE MY QUARTER LIFE CRISIS?

Look, even if we did know the answer to that, we couldn’t tell you.

What we can say though is that ear­ly respons­es to the show have been very pos­i­tive, and audi­ences who have seen the company’s work, includ­ing their pre­vi­ous pro­duc­tion, On the Edge of Me, have said it had a last­ing impact on them.

Reflect­ing on her jour­ney so far, Lewis says: “I love direct­ing and cre­at­ing new work, and doing this play has enabled me to do that. I feel free, cre­ative and chal­lenged in the rehearsal process, which has led me to real­ly appre­ci­ate my job and my jour­ney as an adult.”

Mer­cy says: “I always try to write from an hon­est place, which makes it so hum­bling when an audi­ence says, ‘that’s my sto­ry on stage’. I love when I hear that, ’cause it means we are mak­ing strong, rel­e­vant and mean­ing­ful work.”

Find out more about Quar­ter Life Cri­sis, and how you can donate to the company’s Edin­burgh Fringe fund, on their crowd­fund­ing page.

You can find out more about Yolan­da Mer­cy and Jade Lewis on their per­son­al sites.

Image: Rebec­ca Pitt and Oth­er Richards (main, body image #1); Helen Mur­ray (body image #2). All images are copy­right of their respec­tive parties.