Such Stuff

A short, hypnotic work of fiction that explores an actor’s unraveling psyche in the moments before she takes the stage.

In a theater in London, an hour before the curtain rises, an actor must perform the delicate act of slipping out of her own identity and into another. As she prepares to transform into Miranda, the daughter of Prospero in The Tempest, she struggles to escape her real-life role as a grieving daughter.

Today, on the anniversary of her father’s death, which is also her birthday, the past collides with the present as she thinks back over her life with her father, which has shaped her sense of self and brought her to this moment. While the passions and dramas of her fellow actors play out backstage, she must cast off her memories of the day—where she’s been, what she’s done—to step out of the wreck of herself and become the daughter to another charismatic father.

Mesmerizing and impossible to put down, Such Stuff is a literary feat that manages, in its brevity, to carry an emotional force that lingers long after the final line. It is an utterly original debut by a stunning new voice.