Letters: Kwame Owusu & Francesca Henry
Recorded live on Zoom on Thu 17 Sep 2020
Available until Sat 31 Oct
An unopened letter, a box of props, and a set of instructions.
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 contains. 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.
With very special thanks to our Letters syndicate members: Ariane Braillard & Francesco Cincotta, Charles Cormick and Anatol Orient.
