That’s Why Mums Go to Switzerland ★★★★★

At least three shows in this year’s Edinburgh Fringe feature physician-assisted suicides as part of their storylines. Two are high-profile disappointments — After Party and Mayflies — that turned out to be artistically unsatisfying. The third, That’s Why Mums Go to Switzerland, is heads and tails the best of the trio, a beautifully written and performed true-life piece by Bonnie Oddie and directed by Steve Medlin that is far more deserving of attention.

As can be gathered by the title, Jean Hart, Oddie’s mother, decided to end her life at Dignitas, the Zurich-based nonprofit organization that specializes in physician-assisted suicide. Once diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she knew the clock was ticking for her to do the final deed, because once dementia kicks in, one is no longer eligible. “I’ve wasted time, and now time wastes me,” she said, followed by “I’ve got leftover life to kill.”

What works so strongly in this splendid show’s favor is its honest humor and absolute lack of sentimentality, including the show’s exit music: Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U.” Hart was a complicated, multi-faceted woman — singer, teacher, historian, political activist — who hadn’t felt wanted by either of her parents as a child, both of whom made themselves scarce during her upbringing. Damage was done: “I don’t believe in love. I don’t know what love is.” Also: “I didn’t have a youth. Youth hadn’t been invited when I was young.”

Oddie’s relationship with her mother was, as a result, understandably challenging, and when Oddie offhandedly suggests she and her family move in to her mother’s house after Hart’s third husband has died, she gets trapped into actually doing so by the surprising acceptance of the proposal by both her mother and her partner, who quickly rues that decision and departs within months, leaving three generations of “pissed-off women” — Oddie had two very different teenage daughters at the time — living together under one roof.

If only walls could talk. But they can’t, so Oddie presents this tumultuous chapter of her family life with great candor. “There is no negotiation with the truth,” she states. And later, when she asks “What does a happy woman look like?” the audience is forced to confront the fact that the question has no easy answer.