We sat down with writer of 855-For-Truth, Eva Hudson, about her gripping story of shared humanity and connection ahead of it’s run at the Hope Theatre from 11th to 22nd February.

“855-FOR-TRUTH” intertwines themes of faith, science, and survival. What inspired you to create a story that brings such seemingly opposing perspectives together in a love story?

I was travelling on a long journey through the US on a Greyhound bus when I saw a huge sign on the side of the highway which read ‘BURN IN HELL OR CALL 855-FOR-TRUTH’. I called the number, and was connected to a Mennonite preacher, who told me I would burn in hell were I not to join his ‘community’. We spoke for two hours and agreed on nothing. He told me the world would soon end in a big ball of fire, and that I was foolish, because I didn’t know The Truth. I arrived back in the UK and read an article in The Guardian which told me the world would end in a great ball of fire- it was an article penned by a climate scientist. I was so interested in the idea that these two people probably agree on nothing, but this huge, perhaps the biggest, truth. I am interested by the ways in which things which declare themselves opposites are similar. I decided to reflect these extremes in writing a play in which an eighteen year old climate scientist and religious cult member meet for the first time, and find that many of the huge questions of faith, purpose, and even just ‘who am I and what do I stand for’, that we feel even more acutely in our teenage years, can be answered or explored through the differences in each other. I’m in my early twenties, and I – like so many of us- am angry about the way we have inherited a world that is so clearly in crisis, and then told we are the people who will have to change it. The play literalises the feeling of ‘how do I grow up and into myself when our world is on fire’. Do we act like it isn’t happening? How do we cope emotionally?

How did your personal experiences and concerns influence the development of Meredith and Isaac’s characters?

I grew up in an Irish Catholic family, and I was always really interested in the mysteries and the theatre of faith. Rituals, secrets, the idea that knowledge is accessible only through men in beautiful white robes. In the Catholic faith, you can’t have a completely direct relationship with God- it’s mitigated through a priest in confession- other than I guess through prayer. That’s probably the most literal parallel with Meredith, though her situation is vastly more extreme. I suppose as a teenager and young woman I have felt that I have known and been capable of more than people would give me credit for, in the way that Meredith does. And then Isaac of course has quite an extreme reaction to climate change, in his abandonment of everyone and everything else which is in many ways a manifestation of other underlying anxieties. They call our generation the ‘anxious generation’, which I find interesting, and at times have related to. But it’s hard not to. Despite this, they are full of light and hope and try and find community against it all- which is where I think I sit with it, too. Being open to knowing that you don’t know everything.

The dialogue in the play is described as having ‘sharp wit and poetic pacing.’ How did you approach writing these intense intellectual exchanges while maintaining the emotional connection between the characters?

There’s real warmth in the relationship between Meredith and Isaac, that’s why they keep coming back to each other. Things do become intense – but it’s their connection, the humour, the way they make each other laugh and blush and feel seen that is the way they get through it; and it’s this too that stops the play from feeling entirely anxious and one note.

This is your second staging of “855-FOR-TRUTH” after its earlier run at Pleasance Theatre and Bristol Old Vic. What lessons did you take from those performances, and how have they shaped this new production at The Hope Theatre?

Those were development reads, at Bristol Old Vic and The Pleasance. It was so amazing to hear the words read aloud; that’s largely the way I write. I do all of the voices in my room whilst I’m writing but you never truly know whether something works until you have two brilliant actors bouncing off one another.

With both a religious cult member and a climate scientist as protagonists, the play seems to explore how identity is shaped by the stories we are told. What message do you hope audiences will take away about the power of belief and narrative?

Knowledge is power; we can only act with the information that we have. Thinking for ourselves and challenging information that doesn’t sit right with us. Just because some Old Man with a loud voice who is standing on a plinth tells you something is true, doesn’t mean it is. Don’t let people dismiss you for your age.

You wrote this play at the age of twenty-two. How has your perspective on the story and its themes evolved since you first created it, and what excites you most about its upcoming run in 2025?

Haha, I’m twenty three now… what have I learned in a year, hmm… I think unfortunately the return of Trump to the White House has made the play feel more urgent. Both in terms of his policies on climate change and in terms of misinformation, and the idea of Alternative Truths. That someone like him – whose attitudes to women and people who are different from him – has such a huge microphone is of course so alarming. Navigating that through community, through choosing compassion and love, and listening to young people seems like a message that is right to amplify at the moment.