Letters To Windsor House

I saw Sh!t Theatre before they headed off on their countrywide tour and found it one of the most fun and interesting pieces or theatre I have had the pleasure to watch. QMUL alums and founders of Sh!t Theatre, Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole performed their award-winning show Letters to Windsor House at the Soho Theatre. Having previously performed this show at Camden People’s Theatre rated “Bloody marvellous” by The Independent and winning the Total Theatre Award for ‘Best Emerging Company’ 2013, the show was bound to be well received. The three-day stint in Soho Theatre’s new artists theatre certainly helped increase Sh!t Theatre’s popularity, and due to this they are back again for another three days at Soho Theatre.

Letters to Windsor House points towards the housing crisis currently happening in London and the widening gap in the classes through the hilarious and musical filled insight into Rebecca and Louise’s shared flat. The pair use comedy created by audience interaction and content they have collected through their time living together to ease the audience into the intense subject matter they cover. These letters are the basis of the performance and help to create a lot of the humour; however it is the pairs on stage chemistry that really makes an audience laugh.

Throughout the entire show the whole audience was immersed into this strange musical world in which the duo use film, song, and of course their main subject material the ex-residences letters to highlight the problems that face people trying to find housing in the capital. With the use of songs both old and new the audience won’t be able to help themselves singing along… or in my case finding remixes of their original songs online. The mix of technologies used was one way that the piece brought across the more serious material making it the baseline for the piece without it becoming the focal point.

All the tough subject matter was faced in a way that wasn’t too heavy for the light-hearted humour, but it still made an impact. Luckily I had the pleasure of buying the play text afterwards and would recommend this to anyone who has a spare £5, it really allows you to notice all the nuanced jokes you might have missed during audience laughter.

Sh!t Theatre are definitely on their way to something great with the success of this show alongside the others and are a great advocate for QMUL’s drama program. I would highly recommend going to see this show at one of their upcoming dates at Soho Theatre, Sh!t Theatres unique blend of social commentary and humour is bound to leave you laughing, singing and maybe even looking at London a little differently.

5/5