2022 Edinburgh Fringe First Award

Your life from the day you turn twenty-five through to your death. All the chances you get to change course and all the things you leave unsaid.

Inspired by interviews with hospice workers, conversations with mystics and trips to the cemetery, Age is a Feeling is a gripping story that wrestles with the glorious and melancholy uncertainties of human life. A covert rallying cry against cynicism and regret, it's an uplifting exploration of chance, morality and living with verve.

Haley McGee's one-person play was produced by Soho Theatre, directed by Adam Brace, and first performed at Summerhall during the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was adored by audiences, acclaimed by critics, and awarded several prizes including a Fringe First. It transferred to Soho Theatre, London, for several runs.

Each performance was shaped by random selections made by the audience. This published edition, illustrated by Jason Logan, contains the full text of the play and offers readers a complete experience, as well as a blueprint for future productions.

Haley McGee was on the phone with Visa, promising to pay off her bill by having a yard sale, when she realized that the only things she could sell were gifts from her exes. Inspired by this call, The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale: a play about love is a hilarious and daring play about the cost of love...or what love costs us. So: can we translate sentimental value into cold hard cash? Why does Haley want to -- and why now? The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale smashes together personal divulgences, mathematics, interviews with Haley's ex-boyfriends, economics, and the politics of commerce in a quest to determine what our romantic relationships are actually worth. This autobiographical work offers eight items for sale -- all gifts from Haley's real ex-boyfriends -- and introduces a brand new formula, developed with math expert Melanie Frances, to calculate the cost of love.

Haley McGee is in debt. The solution? A yard sale of gifts from her ex-boyfriends.

But when it comes to pricing, she gets stuck. Surely the ways we invest in our romantic relationships should be reflected in the price. But how? Is the mixtape from your first love worth more than the vintage typewriter from a philanderer? Does sitting on an X-Acto knife wedged between seats on a bus to see the boyfriend you lost your virginity to increase or decrease the value of the necklace he gave you? Should you be compensated for the miserable times or do they render an item worthless?

Haley decides to gamble on a larger payout. She interviews her exes and enlists the help of a mathematician to create a formula--with eighty-six variables--for the cost of love. As she's searching for answers, the one that got away reappears with a new proposition.

Female desire, heartbreak and the chance for integrity in the aftermath of both are held up in this whipsmart, original and daringly candid memoir. As Haley McGee interrogates her romantic triumphs and failures with unflinching detail and hilarity, her exquisite prose elevates this all too human conundrum: Is love worth it?