If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet

If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet is the first full length professionally produced play by the British playwright Nick Payne. It was produced at the Bush Theatre^[1] in London in 2009 receiving very positive reviews and earned Payne a nomination for the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2010 and he won the George Devine Award. A New York production played the Roundabout Theatre Companies Off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre in the Fall of 2012 giving film actor Jake Gyllenhaal a New York stage debut. It was extended as well as returning for another couple weeks. Designer Beowulf Boritt pulled-out-all-the-stops and created an impressive submergable set suggesting a planet under siege. TimeOut New York called it "Stirring, Insightful & Brutally Honest." As a family in a tailspin stuck somewhere between knowing what the problems are and doing something about it - questions of what or who really needs saving were presented in this stirring work.

Plot

Overweight and bullied Anna is neglected by her global warming obsessed father and misunderstood by her teacher mother. When her dozy but charismatic uncle turns up out the blue he is the only one that seems be able to get through to her, however as he becomes more and more obsessed with his ex-girlfriend and his own problems he doesn't notice Anna spiralling into depression and that he is the only one who could save her.

Premiere

Directed by Josie Rourke in 2009 at the Bush Theatre it was a smash hit. Starring Rafe Spall, Ailish O'Connor, Pandora Collin and Michael Begley. It received positive reviews calling it flawless and a comic tour de force.^[2]

References