Myra's Story Tickets

In the 19th century George Bernard Shaw’s Widowers’ Houses raised awareness about slum landlords and the appalling conditions in which many people were forced to live. Last century Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart did much to change attitudes around Aids, and theatre shows such as Athol Fugard’s The Island played a key role in bringing an end to apartheid by raising international awareness. 

Only the other week I spoke with the young activist Valentina Andrade about My Uncle Is Not Pablo Escobar, currently at Brixton House, a play which has played a positive part in transforming how London’s fast-growing Latinex community sees itself and how London sees it.

Theatre genuinely can make change, and one show which has been doing that for eight years is Brian Foster’s one-woman play, Myra’s Story, performed by Irish actor Fionna Hewitt-Twamley, which returns to Trafalgar Theatre this week. 

Over the last eight years, the play, which tells the fictional story of Myra McLaughlin, a middle-aged homeless alcoholic Dubliner, has raised over £450,000 for homeless charities. Hewitt-Twamley says that she has no intention of stopping until the play has raised at least a million. I believe her. Her dedication to the play is such that it comes with more than a whiff of authenticity: Hewitt-Twamley hasn’t washed the clothes she wears on stage once during the last eight years.

But important though the fundraising has been, Hewitt-Twamley says that she thinks the real importance of Myra’s Story is in its ability to change perceptions. 

“I am showing people the person behind the dirty woolly hat and showing that there was a life lived before and there is a possibility of a life beyond where a homeless person finds themselves at that moment. So often those who haven’t experienced homelessness think that the homeless have made a choice to be on the streets. But one of the things the play does is remind us that Myra is an ordinary person, and what happened to her can happen to almost anyone. Most of us are just a couple of paycheques away from the streets, and a lost job, a divorce, a death, or terrible grief can be all it takes to change the course of your life.” 

As soon as she read the play, Hewitt-Twamley knew that she wanted to do it, not just because it’s an actor’s dream – she gets to play 16 characters in a tour de force performance-- but also because she could see the power of the play to change hearts and minds about homelessness and those who are experiencing it. 

“It entertains; there’s plenty of comedy,” she says, “but it’s powerful too because one of the things we so often do when we see a homeless person is that we make judgements on the basis of what you see in front of you, and what Myra’s Story does is really tell her story, the ups and the downs, so that people see beyond the hat.” 

The moving story of Myra, a homeless Dublin street drinker has been captivating audiences for almost five years. The heart-warming tale of Myra’s Story will come to the London stage for the first time this autumn starring Fíonna Hewitt-Twamley.