A true story of love, survival and transformation.

In a deserted circus, drama, humour, dream and song tell the true love story of Tilly Wedekind. After finding major success playing Lulu – the ground-breaking role created by Frank Wedekind, writer of Spring Awakening – Tilly becomes Frank’s wife and his leading actress. Jealous of her success, Frank robs Tilly of her acting roles and reduces her to a nobody. Her career halts and, broken-hearted, she attempts suicide. Determined to recover, she leaves Frank and reclaims her career. Through writing her own story, she reasserts her identity and transforms herself into a somebody in a journey of personal triumph.

Informed by performer Bella Merlin’s own experience of domestic coercion, the result is a powerful reflection on identity, love and the transformative power of self-discovery.

About the author:

Born in the heart of England, Bella has been an actor, writer and actor trainer throughout her professional life. Theatre highlights include two seasons at the Royal National Theatre with Max Stafford-Clark’s Out of Joint Theatre Company and several seasons at Shakespeare & Company (Massachusetts), including multiple productions directed by co-founding artistic director, Tina Packer. Merlin has worked extensively on stage, screen, and audio in the UK and the USA. Tilly No-Body was first created in collaboration with director-actor, Miles Anderson, at the University of California, Davis. It has subsequently played at Shakespeare & Company, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, South Korea, Germany, and the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe (where it received an Edinburgh Festival Fringe Theatre Award and “Pick of the Fringe”). Merlin is the author of several internationally acclaimed books including The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit (NHB 2014), Facing the Fear: An Actor’s Guide to Overcoming Stage Fright (NHB 2016) and Shakespeare & Company: When Action is Eloquence with Tina Packer (Routledge 2020). Merlin is a distinguished professor of acting and directing at the University of California, Riverside.