Taking the reader behind the scenes and into the rehearsal process, Inventing the Truth is Mike Bradwell's accessible guide to creating a play from scratch. Theatre is fundamentally about persuading an audience to suspend their disbelief; here Bradwell shows how he has worked with actors to build and develop the characters and plot of an improvised play; and then how he uses improvisation as a director of a scripted piece, taking his actors on a journey of exploration, to create as real a piece of theatre as possible.

In two brilliantly complimentary parts Bradwell takes us through his work on Bed of Roses, improvised with actors from Hull Truck, and When You Cure Me written by Jack Thorne for Bradwell to direct at the Bush Theatre. In the first half he provides a clear and precise analysis of how an improvised play is put together and then, in the second, shows how those same techniques can be used on a scripted play to build and develop characters the audience can truly believe in. It's a revelatory process, learned while working with Mike Leigh, and one that is rarely talked about with such candour and honesty. The full scripts of both plays are included in this book as essential reference points.