FOR a very long time, Colchester playwright Nicola Werenowska didn't even know she had a disability.

"I knew something was wrong," she smiles, "but I had no idea what it was."

When she did, it literally changed her life, one of the results of which is the production of her new play, Hidden at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester this week.

Set against the collapse of the economic bubble in 2008, Hidden tells the story of Chris is a city lawyer and Jess is a PhD student, two ordinary people in a relationship who want to get on with their lives. But there’s something unsaid, undiscovered.

And that's dyspraxia, a developmental disorder of the brain which causes difficulty in activities requiring coordination and movement.

Nicola says: "My diagnosis of dyspraxia at the age of 29 was absolutely life transforming and gave me the confidence to explore my passion for playwriting.

"It was like, ‘I know who I am now’. Although I had been a Royal Court Theatre runner-up for my play 20% when I was 16, without the knowledge of what it was that was wrong with me, I lacked the confidence to pursue my dream.

"So with my newfound knowledge of my dyspraxia, I joined my local playwrights’ group at the Mercury Theatre in 2003 and was lucky my first professional production took place the following year."

Born in Weeley but spending most of her life in Colchester, Nicola knew something was wrong from an early age.

"When I was four," she continues, "I couldn't go on the swing or do my coat up but when you're at home and you have that family support, you set up coping mechanisms.

"It was only when I went to university and I couldn't open the door to my room, use the washing machine in the launderette, that kind of stuff, that I just broke down."

Initially diagnosed with 'pretty everything else under the mental health banner' Nicola managed to get her degree, then incredibly studied for an MA and eventually got her Phd.

"It was when I was teaching at a school in London," she adds, "and I was asked to take a whole classroom. I had a bit of a meltdown and the headteacher suggested I go and speak to the school counsellor who spotted it straight away."

Now Nicola has written about her 'invisible' disability in Hidden.

"Although the knowledge of dyspraxia energized me into playwriting," she explains, "and I have been successful in getting my work commissioned and produced, it took a long time before I felt comfortable being ‘out’ about my disability in a professional theatre context. I think I was coming to terms with my disability myself.

"All that changed when I gained a place on Graeae’s Write to Play Attachment scheme in 2013/14. For the first time, I was working in a environment where I felt not only ok to be open about my disability but began to understand how my dyspraxia was part of my playwriting process.

"Hidden is certainly the most autobiographical. That said, the characters are fictional and not related to myself or anyone I know closely. What does come directly from my experience is Jess’s journey from the frustration of not knowing to the liberation of discovery. The emotional strand mirrors my own although the circumstances are different, Jess has a child that is a key to her diagnosis whereas I had my children post diagnosis."

As well as opening up Nicola's disability, Hidden is very special to the Colchester playwright for another reason.

Nicola adds: "It was inspired by my friend, Mary Colley, the founder of the Adult Dyspraxia Foundation and DANDA, who put Adult Dyspraxia on the map and changed the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people, including myself.

"Mary, who was a great supporter of my plays, died from breast cancer in 2010 and before she died, she asked me if I would write a play about dyspraxia. I promised her I would and by some beautiful synchronicity of the universe the week of Mary’s funeral, I received a telephone call from Graeae asking me if I would like to do some research exploring dyspraxia."

Directed by Scott Hurran, and starring Lewis Goody and Millie Proust, following short runs in Oxford, Canterbury and Norwich, Hidden arrives at the Mercury Studio Theatre this week.

"I've been so proud of this tour," she adds. "There has not yet been a full length play about dyspraxia so I was honoured to take the play to different venues and raise the profile of dyspraxia. It’s the first time that I’ve written about my disability in a playwriting context so it also feels like something of an exposure. That’s probably a good thing."

Following the Mercury run, Nicola is looking forward to developing a new play exploring the issues contemporary Polish migrants face.

She says: "I am passionate about Polish culture and history and often write plays which engage with Poland/Poles in the UK. The new one I am now developing is a play called Silence, which explores intergenerational effects of trauma through the lens of the UK’s postwar Polish community. I am looking to produce this play next year with the Mercury Theatre and Unity Theatre."

Hidden

Mercury Studio Theatre,

Balkerne Gate, Colchester.

Friday and Saturday, April 28 and 29. 8pm and 3pm (Saturday).

£13.50 plus discounts. 01206 573948.

www.mercurytheatre.co.uk