Rethinking Good Intentions: A Solo Storytelling Play

Event Description

Last year, "Rethinking Good Intentions" debuted at five Fringe Festivals in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Audiences described it as "powerful", "impressive", "so relatable", "funny and poignant" and "rich with culture". In August, 2025, "Rethinking Good Intentions" is coming to the west coast with six performances scheduled at Victoria's Fringe Festival and a performance in Ladysmith.
Nancy Edwards is the Ottawa-based playwright and performer. Her compelling, solo story-telling play transports audiences to the rural villages of Sierra Leone, West Africa in the late 1970s where Nancy worked as a community health nurse for five years.
Nancy’s journey is both poignant and humorous. With the patience of local mentors, Nancy adjusted to life and the field-work realities of delivering preventive maternal and child health services. The play is filled with stories about initially blundered and then inspired encounters with village chiefs, traditional birth attendants, and subsistence farmers. Village experiences rattled Nancy’s cultural preconceptions, provoked her notions of social privilege, and forever deepened her global connections.
Nancy’s heart-warming and heart-breaking stories about public health work in the villages make audiences laugh and cry. This new play is full of humanity.