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The Idiot's Guide to Breaking Your Own Heart

 
Joy Watters Review by Joy Watters 4 Published: 8 Aug 2025 Greenside @ Riddles Court Show Dates: 2 Aug 2025-7 Aug 2025

Who is the teacher who really made a difference to your life? The cast of An Idiot’s Guide To Breaking Your Own Heart at Greenside@Riddles Court all say Mr Perez. Paul Andrew Perez, head of theatre at St John’s Country Day School, Jacksonville, had only just begun writing a new Fringe show for his teenage students when he died a few months ago.

This is the sort of show that the Fringe should encompass

So what was to happen to the fragment of the pop rock musical? At first, cancellation seemed the only option, but the flights, accommodation and Fringe venue were already booked, and more importantly, Paul Perez adored the Edinburgh Fringe and giving young people the chance to appear at the world’s biggest performing arts festival.

Thus his students, families, friends and staff at the school decided the show must go on. Fellow teacher and friend Todd Twining took over the director’s role and co-ordinated getting the musical stage ready. He introduced the show to Fringe audiences, explaining its staging was their way of ‘healing and of honouring’ the show’s creator.

The show looks at what it is like to be a teenager these days, focusing on 16-year-old Simon Walker (played with truly recognisable angst by Nikhil Gupta). He is surrounded by a clutch of female classmates who display varying degrees of empathy. There’s the ever-present Q (Alyssa Walker), somewhat robustly trying to bring him out of his shell; lovely Sandy (Ishta Ramroop), kind and available; and Simon’s crush, the unattainable and self-absorbed Chloe (Amelia Munley). Outside school, we meet Simon’s Cuban mother, a spirited performance from Samantha Richter.

The framework of the story is the class being assigned a project on How to Be You by teacher Mrs Hannan (an assured Michelle Nugent Munley). Simon struggles his way through each chapter feeling more and more of a nonentity. A couple of the final headings are What Do You Contribute To Society? and Does Your Life Have Meaning? A couple of facers for any age group, let alone a struggling adolescent! Simon tries to get some answers with his peers.

These young people are great singers, with some lovely Todd Twining songs underpinning their emotional struggles. This is the sort of show that the Fringe should encompass: a tribute to a beloved teacher and friend by a highly motivated group of youngsters treading the boards with relish.

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The Blurb:

The Infinity Repertory Theatre company presents a new musical from George Griggs and Paul Andrew Perez. Simon Walker, an angst ridden teenager, struggles to find his purpose in life. Questioning his existence, ability to love and be loved, and his weird school lunch. Simon struggles with understanding his purpose in life, how he fits in. Together with his friends, Quentin Bean and Sandy Dachowski, Simon relives the high and low points of his life. Join Simon in this new pop rock musical that promises to be a funny and gut-wrenching.