From the team who created the Gate’s critically acclaimed production of Dear Elizabeth, Letters is a funny and often moving reflection on the global situation we find ourselves in.
In March 2020, as the UK joined countries around the world in the Covid-19 lockdowns, the Gate Theatre invited 9 pairs of performers to write letters to each other. Some met for the first time performing Dear Elizabeth, and some are complete strangers. Letters is the opening of these correspondence.
Written between March and August 2020, Letters tells the story of Spring to Summer; of pandemics and protests; of the personal and the public, and of people living in isolation reaching out to one another on paper.
At once brilliantly funny, touching and true, Letters is a candid and compelling celebration of coming together even when we are physically apart.
Live from their own homes, each pair of performers will open and read the letters they’ve received from each other. Neither knows what their letters contain. All they have is a series of instructions and a surprise box of props to create a show together by opening up, meeting one another, and exchanging the gift of a poem.
Co-directed by Nina Bowers, Yasmin Hafesji, Hannah Ringham, Moi Tran, and Gate Artistic Director Ellen McDougall.
The cast includes Alex Austin, Isabel Adomakoh Young, Joseph Akubeze, Nadia Albina, Nigel Barrett, Nina Bowers (also co-directing), Elizabeth Chan, Tim Crouch, Phoebe Fox, Francesca Henry, Helena Lymbery, Kayla Meikle, Kwame Owusu, Hannah Ringham (also co-directing), Irfan Shamji, Annie Siddons, Thalissa Teixeira and Chris Thorpe.
Letters will be live streamed on Zoom from 14 September as part of a series which will run until 6 October, with more dates to be announced shortly.
Each performance contains live captioning.
