It will take more than a job loss and a narcolepsy diagnosis to stop the Victorian "ray of sunshine", Maryellen, as she brings her new comedy storytelling show, Anecdotal Evidence, to The Warehouse Theatre until the 19th of March.

Beneath the cheerful exterior, though, Maryellen has endured hardships: thwarted acting dreams, financial insecurity, the patriarchy, a belated ADHD diagnosis, and, most recently, the discovery that she has narcolepsy. Her most recent hurdle altered the concept and development of Anecdotal Evidence.

Narcolepsy, a debilitating and still little-understood neurological condition, can wreak carnage on the memory, so Maryellen does keep a script handy, but she rarely uses it. Dosed on stimulants and armed with her charisma, Maryellen entertains with her Ross Noble tangents, even if the work, given the circumstances, doesn't entirely make cohesive sense.

Showing up, though, and sharing the contemporaneous lived experience of diagnosis and disability, makes Anecdotal Evidence an important new work.