From devastating loss to laughter: Big Girl Pants comes to Maple Cross
A local woman is turning one of the darkest experiences of her life into a hilarious and heartfelt one-woman show at Woodoaks Farm this October.
Actor and writer Lynn Beaumont will bring her acclaimed one-woman show, Big Girl Pants, to The Black Barn at Woodoaks Farm, Maple Cross, Rickmansworth, on Saturday, October 10, 2026.
The show was born out of unimaginable loss. In April 2022, Beaumont lost her husband, best friend and writing and business partner to cancer following a short illness. Just 11 days earlier, she had also lost her stepson. “Her world changed overnight.”
Suddenly Beaumont found herself facing life alone, struggling with grief and frightened by what the future might hold. “I was terrified of not knowing how to process the grief,” she says: “I’d read some very scary stories about unprocessed grief and I didn’t want it to become a casualty of mine.”
Unable to find the right therapist initially, Beaumont turned to the thing she knew best — writing. She began putting down her thoughts, memories and feelings wherever she happened to be: on trains, planes, beaches and park benches. Then came an unlikely idea: a stand-up show about grief.
There was just one problem — Beaumont had never done stand-up. Her daughter, actor Charlotte Beaumont, encouraged her to remember that becoming a stand-up comedian wasn’t the point. Sharing her story was.
Over the next couple of years, Beaumont’s writing developed into Big Girl Pants, a funny, moving and deeply honest exploration of cancer, death, grief and learning how to live again. The show had its first performance at Chesham Fringe in May 2026, after a chance conversation on a train with the festival’s programmer. Charlotte directed the production.
Since then, Big Girl Pants has gone on to perform two London dates at Lower Marsh Arts Club, and now returns to the local area for its special Woodoaks Farm performance. Beaumont hopes the show will eventually make its way to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2027.
Despite tackling some incredibly difficult subjects, Big Girl Pants is ultimately a celebration of resilience and finding laughter in unexpected places. “Talking about death doesn’t make it happen any sooner,” says Beaumont: “And talking about grief doesn’t make it disappear. But grief is the love we had for another person.”
For Beaumont, putting the show on stage has become part of learning to live again. “And sometimes,” she says, “you just have to put on your Big Girl Pants” and take the next step.
Big Girl Pants at The Barn event tickets from TicketSource
0 Comments