Tuesday 11 April 2017

Preview: Letters to Windsor House at Newcastle Northern Stage



Fringe First award winning smash hit coming to Newcastle as part of an extensive UK tour

Sh!t Theatre with Show And Tell present
Letters to Windsor House
Newcastle Northern Stage
Wednesday 3rd May 2017

Letters to Windsor House (no, not that one) is the latest show from multi award winning duo Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole, aka Sh!t Theatre. The Fringe First winning/Total Theatre award nominated show takes a typically idiosyncratic, personal and very human look at the housing crisis in the capital and beyond and succeeds in making a song and dance about the state of the nation and ‘generation rent’.

North East audiences have the opportunity to see this smash hit when it comes to Newcastle’s Northern Stage on Wednesday 3rd May at 7.45pm as part of an extensive tour that follows a sold out two week London run at the Soho Theatre.

Combining a highly entertaining blend of comedy, theatre, song, performance art and investigative journalism with dancing red cardboard post boxes, Letters to Windsor is a totally fun show, that nevertheless makes important points about the nation’s housing crisis, the desperation and inequalities it creates and above all the utter unfairness of it all.

‘A painfully funny look at the housing crisis…. A kind of twenty-first-century Withnail & I’ ★★★★  Time Out - Top 10 UK Theatre Shows of 2016

Sitting in their rented council flat in Windsor House, east London, staring at a growing pile of unopened letters to previous tenants, Sh!t Theatre’s Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit became curious about the history of the flat and its previous occupants.

A loophole in the Postal Services Act says you can open other people’s mail … under certain circumstances. Rebecca and Louise decided that this was that certain circumstance and giving in to temptation opened the Pandora’s box…

‘hilarious and heartbreaking’ ★★★★ Sunday Times

Their detective work revealed a legacy of dodgy landlords, a frightening case study of how compound interest on minor unpaid charges can become thousands of pounds of debt and a revelation about their own tenancy status that ultimately affected their friendship. This being an inner London Borough, gentrification is never far away. A smooth estate agent shows Louise and Rebecca around a new build show flat aimed at buy to let investors, assuring them that residents of this new world are more than adequately protected from the tenants of Windsor House…

‘A distinctive style of music-hall agitprop theatre imbued with wit and heart’ ★★★★ The Times

Rebecca Biscuit said ’we’ve lived and worked together in Windsor House for five years, watching as London and our friendship changed’. Louise added ‘as soon as we started opening the mail that had been tumbling through our door, making guesses at the stories of the various tenants, we knew we had to take the investigation as far as we could’.

Letters To Windsor House was a huge sell out hit at the Edinburgh Fringe winning a coveted Fringe First Award to add to their Total Theatre Award, Arches Brick Award and Three Weeks Editors Award along with their nominations for the Amnesty Freedom of Expression and Carol Tambor Awards and a further Total Theatre nomination.

Sh!t Theatre have built an impressive body of work including Guinea Pigs on Trial and Women’s Hour (top 5 best plays to see in Edinburgh - Daily Telegraph). They have been told many times by theatre professionals to change their name.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo_fOPYnEhg&feature=youtu.be

Letters to Windsor House was commissioned by Harlow Playhouse and Supported by Camden People’s Theatre. It is produced by Show And Tell www.showandtelluk.com

Critical acclaim for Sh!t Theatre:
★★★★★ Three Weeks, Edinburgh Festivals Magazine, Scotsgay
★★★★ Guardian, Times, Time Out, Scotsman, Daily Telegraph, The List, WhatsOnStage, Exeunt, The Stage

Tickets:

Letters to Windsor House comes to Newcastle, Northern Stage at 3 May 7.45pm
£10 (£8 concs)Box Office: 01912305151 www.northernstage.co.uk  



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