You may need to do a spot of homework before attending Tilly No-Body at the Arcola. Acted and written by Bella Merlin, the play examines the sufferings and blunders of Tilly Newes, an actress born in 1886, who married the experimental German dramatist Frank Wedekind.

At first sight the show looks like a lesson for newcomers but the content is bound to confuse anyone who lacks a working knowledge of German theatre in the early 20th century. The ideal viewer is a literary expert familiar with the whole of Wedekind’s dramatic output. Numerous lines from his plays are quoted, not always with intelligible citations. ‘Women are natural actors’, runs a typical aphorism, and ‘no woman can keep a man happy by behaving sincerely.’

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Wedekind’s theatrical idiom relies on elaborate costumes, large-scale gestures, clowning, mime, folksongs and circus acrobatics. To a modern audience these effects may seem facile and dated. And the play’s structure is hard to grasp without a glance at the programme notes.

The action opens as Tilly takes an overdose of poison which triggers a mental flashback that lasts........

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