‘NONFICTION’ is a play about motherhood that does not fit social expectations. About love that is stronger than disappointment, but helpless against another person’s choices. And the need to tell a story, even when it is hardest to find the right words for it. 

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The play’s protagonist is trying to save her daughter, who is grappling with addiction. She lives between hope and fear, always searching for a way to get there. That path takes her to her relationship with her mother and questions about what we pass down through the experience of motherhood, and what remains our decision.   

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The centre point of the performance is motherhood stripped of ideals – the experience of love that gives us no sense of agency, and responsibility that is no protection against failure. At the same time, the play asks about creative freedom: Can we write about those we love? Does literature have the right to reach into the most intimate experiences if the price is exposing another person’s life? 

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The role of the daughter is played by woolly hand-puppets/sculptures by Aneta Grzeszykowska, inspired by the Franciszka series. Their presence opens a space between memory and imagination, documentary and fiction. 

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Julie Myerson is the author of ten novels, including the bestseller ‘Something Might Happen’, and three works of non-fiction, including ‘Home: The Story of Everyone Who Ever Lived In Our House’, made into a radio play by BBC Radio 4, and ‘The Lost Child: A true story’. As a critic and columnist she has published in such papers as The Guardian, FT, Harper’s Bazaar and New York Times, and has appeared regularly in the BBC TV programme Newsnight Review. She lives in London.