Fringe First Winning LETTERS TO WINDSOR HOUSE at Soho Theatre

By: Dec. 21, 2016
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Letters to Windsor House (no, not that one) is the latest show from multi award winning duo 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'.

It runs at Soho Theatre from 31 January - 11 February (not 5, 6) before undertaking an extensive tour.

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.

Sitting in their rented council flat in Windsor House, Hackney, 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...

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...

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.

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

www.sohotheatre.com



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