The Unicorn - A Memory Play

When Nessa tries to remember her late Uncle Brendan, she discovers that memory is far less interested in facts than it is in love

When Nessa was a child, Brendan was the centre of every family gathering. A red-bearded uncle who fixed broken toys, applauded spectacularly imperfect gymnastics routines, sang "King of the Road" with complete confidence regardless of key, and made every child feel as though nothing in the world mattered more than the small thing they had placed in his hands.

As an adult, Nessa begins to understand the silences that surrounded him.

The conversations that stopped when children entered the room.

The disappearances no one explained.

The worry hidden beneath ordinary family dinners.

Moving between childhood memory and adult reflection, Nessa reconstructs the man her family loved but could never fully understand. As old memories repeat, contradict, soften, and sharpen, she slowly realizes that growing up has not replaced wonder with truth. It has simply revealed that love is rarely uncomplicated.

THE UNICORN is an intimate memory play about childhood mythmaking, addiction, grief, family silence, tenderness, and emotional inheritance. It asks whether we honour the people we love by explaining them, forgiving them, or allowing them to remain beautifully unfinished.

Inspired by the playwright's own memories and family history, this play is rooted in real people, places, and emotional truths. Characters, chronology, dialogue, circumstances, and other elements have been imagined, combined, or altered for dramatic purposes.