Letters

In January 2019, Notting Hill’s Gate Theatre staged Dear Elizabeth, a condensed reading of the letters of post-war poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. At each performance, a different pair of actors met and read – for the very first time – Sarah Ruhl’s edited version of Bishop and Lowell’s words.

Letters, the theatre’s new show created over the course of lockdown, reunites several of the cast and creatives of Dear Elizabeth and draws inspiration from it, with the Gate having invited them to write letters to each other during lockdown.

Each Zoom-based performance involves two different actors delivering an unscripted and unrehearsed reading of those handwritten letters they sent each other from March to August this year.

The opening night’s show was performed by Nina Bowers and Hannah Ringham, co-directors along with Yasmin Hafesji, Moi Tran and Ellen McDougall. Along with reading parts of the letters each received from the other, the pair variously dress up using a box of costumes and props they’ve been sent in the mail, dance to some songs and write sentences on coloured paper in response to questions asking, for example, how they are feeling.

The concept of the show is compelling. There’s the potential here for unlocking how written communication can lead to intense, honest and powerful bonds – just as the letters of Bishop and Lowell demonstrate. But it relies heavily on the quality of the correspondence, and the missives shared on the first night are overwhelmingly banal.

The exchange of poetry improves matters but instead of being a demonstration of human-to-human connectivity, the whole thing suffers from feeling awkward, stilted and impersonal.