Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love – Arcola Theatre – Review

Arcola Theatre — 24 Ashwin St, London E8 3DL, United Kingdom

Andy Jordan Productions Ltd & Dr Act presents: TILLY NO-BODY: Catastrophes of Love
Dates: 7 – 25 Jul 2026

As is increasingly the norm, the best theatre in London is far from the Disney-dominated West End. Often within easy reach but psychologically far away, it is worth making that extra bit of effort – often no effort at all – to see theatre that is both challenging and still entertaining. The Arcola in Dalston hits all the spots with its current production, written and directed by its one-woman performer, Bella Merlin. In a packed 70 minutes, the piece explores the life of the one-time-celebrated Austro-German actor Tilly Wedekind (1885-1970). More especially, it interrogates the relationship, the dependency (abusive?) relationship, with her much more celebrated, and twenty-one-year senior, husband Frank Wedekind (1864-1918). Wedkind’s best-known works, Erdgeist (1895) and Die Būchse der Pandora (1904), were part of a writing and drama career that focused on repressed sexuality. With their focus on a sometimes debauched sexuality, the plays, known as the  Lulu series, formed the basis of Alban Berg’s acclaimed Lulu (1937).

This current play explores the overlap between the real world and the world of the theatre – to what extent is the marital relationship reflecting or informing the plays and their staging?  Is Frank Wedekind able to see his wife as a partner or a character in one of his successful plays?  Acclaimed for her performances and interpretation, Tilly’s success threatened Frank’s status; his jealousy led her to trial separations and suicide attempts. How can Tilly herself distinguish between her needs as wife and mother and the needs of her role on stage? Where does her reality begin and end? It is not a unique representation of this tension in an actor’s life. Is life on stage more comfortable than the performance of life in the real world? Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) explored the same field, if with less angst, in Theatre (1937). Tilly, traumatised and abused, was reduced to a walk-on part in her own life story. Frank’s jealousy compounded the fragility of Tilly’s own background, with both her mother and sister committing suicide.  So, she was already vulnerable and coping with many ghosts.  Tilly wanted her own voice, but needed Frank too. She craved his approval, but Frank died in 1918 – the personal trauma reflecting the parallel trauma of the German Empire.  The challenges were many, but survive she did.  Through effort and circumstance, Tilly eventually found her own voice; she lived on to 1970 and enjoyed the success of another career, relationships and an autobiography, Lulu: The Role of my Life (1969).

All this energy, love, trauma, joy, and jealousy is packed into a helter-skelter performance of great ability and brilliance. The audience is engaged from start to finish, and there is not a dull moment. Bella Merlin transforms the confined space into the world of  Wilhelmine Germany  – exuberant, energetic and yet on the cusp of disastrous failure and collapse. This was an intoxicating period, politically and culturally, in which the Wedekinds were a part.  This play and performance give us an insightful introduction.

Andy Jordan Productions & Dr ACT present Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love
Written and performed by Bella Merlin
Directed by Miles Anderson