Making Autobiographical Theatre: Notes from A Very Difficult Person
By Rhys Williamson
Since moving to Bristol I’ve been involved in a number of things across the city’s theatre and new writing scene, from workshops with Bristol Clown School and The Wardrobe Ensemble, to Writers Lab at Tobacco Factory Theatres.
All of it has fed into how I think about making work as a theatre maker in Bristol. I’ve been struck by how open and active the community is here around new writing, performance development, and early-stage ideas.
A lot of the people I’ve met through Bristol’s theatre scene have asked a version of the same question: how do you make autobiographical theatre?
So I thought I’d write down a few notes from the process of creating my show, A Very Difficult Person.
Starting with real life material
I was actually lucky in a strange and slightly unexpected way.
When I began working on this piece, I thought I was going to end up in court.
So what became my R&D process for theatre in Bristol was originally something else entirely: documentation for a legal dispute.
I kept diaries, recordings, photos, and detailed notes because I assumed I might need them in a legal fight.
What I didn’t realise was that I was also building an archive of material for autobiographical theatre.
That archive became the foundation of the show.
It also meant I had a large body of lived material to draw from when developing new writing in Bristol and shaping the piece for performance.
Writing everything down
A lot of this approach comes back to something I read from Mike Birbiglia about his writing process:
“Document your life. The good stuff. The bad stuff. But mostly the bad stuff.”
What stayed with me is the idea that what’s “wrong” with you is often more interesting dramatically than what’s “right” with you.
In autobiographical theatre and new writing, you are not just recording events. You are building perspective through detail.
And that perspective often lives in the material you don’t realise is important at the time.
The show is more than the central story
One of the key discoveries in making autobiographical theatre was realising that the show is not just the central event.
It is everything around it too.
The throwaway moments. The side stories. The things you almost miss at the time.
In theatre making, especially within new writing in Bristol, that surrounding material is often where the strongest work emerges.
In fact, one of the most important sections of my show sits outside the main narrative entirely. It became one of the most revealing parts of the piece.
Emotional truth in autobiographical theatre
Autobiographical theatre is not documentary theatre.
You owe the audience emotional truth, not forensic accuracy.
In practice, that means you can:
shift timelines
combine real moments
change details
reshape structure for clarity on stage
As long as the emotional truth remains intact, the work remains honest.
This is one of the central tensions in autobiographical performance and new writing more broadly: how lived experience becomes shaped for the stage.
Boundaries and making work safely
One of the most important parts of making autobiographical theatre is not structural, but personal.
You need to know your boundaries early.
What you are comfortable sharing on stage. What you are not.
There is often a myth in theatre making that exposure equals bravery.
In practice, sustainable performance making in Bristol, or anywhere else, requires clarity, not overexposure.
Making theatre in Bristol
Working in Bristol’s theatre scene has had a real impact on how I think about developing new work.
Alongside spaces like Tobacco Factory Theatres and Writers Lab, I’ve also been performing work in the city at nights like Story Slam, The Lost Cabaret, and Tommy’s Waffle Club.
There is a strong ecosystem here for testing ideas, developing new writing, and sharing work with live audiences at an early stage.
That mix of formal development spaces and informal performance nights has been important in shaping how I approach theatre making in Bristol.
“A Very Difficult Person”
These ideas became the foundation of my show, “A Very Difficult Person”, a darkly comic autobiographical theatre piece about a feud with a rogue trader, retold as a modern fairytale.
The show is next presented as part of Writers Lab Presents at Tobacco Factory Theatres on 6th June in Bristol, alongside Charlotte Souter’s This Show Is Not About Death, which is also inspired by real-life experience.
Both pieces sit within a wider conversation about autobiographical theatre, new writing, and performance making in Bristol.
Final thoughts
I am not an expert in autobiographical theatre or new writing.
But these are the things I kept returning to while developing work within Bristol’s theatre community.
If you are making autobiographical theatre or new writing in Bristol, I would be genuinely interested in what you have learned.
