Synopses & Reviews
Fifteen-year-old Anna is bullied by her classmates for being overweight. Her mother, Fiona, decides to transfer her to the school where she teaches, but that only makes things worse. Annas father, George, is no help—hes too obsessed with saving the world. Just as Anna gets suspended for head-butting one of her tormenters, her uncle Terry arrives for an unannounced visit. A heartbroken, filthy-mouthed slacker, Terry reaches out to Anna in a way that no one ever has. Their unexpected friendship sends her parents rocky marriage into a tailspin as the whole family wonders what—or who—really needs saving.
Nick Paynes If There Is I Havent Found It Yet is a brilliantly sad, humorous, and empathetic play about a family stuck somewhere between knowing what the problem is and doing something about it.
Review
Praise for
If There Is I Havent Found It Yet “Payne is a new and exceptionally bright star . . . celebrated for casting a fresh, fragmented light on the complexities of contemporary life.” —Ben Brantley,
The New York Times“Enter Nick Payne, a stripling British playwright at the beginning of a great career . . . His plays aspire to intellectual and visual astonishment, combining curiosity and compassion into satisfying puzzles, which bring together public concerns and private griefs in order to explore the irony between the realms . . . [If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet] uses the front-page issues of climate change, obesity, and school bullying as paths to a deeper inquiry into Homo sapiens self-destructiveness.” —John Lahr, The New Yorker
About the Author
Nick Payne is the author of the plays Wanderlust, a new version of Sophocles Electra, One Day When We Were Young, Constellations, and Lay Down Your Cross. He is the winner of the 2009 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and the 2012 Harold Pinter Playwrights Award. He is currently under commission with the Royal Court Theatre, the Donmare Warehouse, and the Manhattan Theatre Club. He was born in 1984.