Sh!t Theatre to Bring LETTERS TO WINDSOR to HOME Manchester This April

Letters to Windsor House (no, not that one) is the latest show from multi award- winning duo Sh!t Theatre, comprising Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit, whose last appearance at HOME was in Women's Hour in HOME'S ORBIT Festival in autumn 2016. Letters to Windsor House plays at HOME for four performances, Wed 19 - Fri 21 April 2017.

This Edinburgh Festival 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'.

Combining a highly entertaining blend of comedy, theatre, song, performance art and investigative journalism with dancing red cardboard post boxes, Letters to Windsor House 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, east London, and staring at a growing pile of unopened letters to previous tenants, Mothersole and Biscuit became curious about the history of the flat and its previous occupants.

A loophole in the Postal Services Act of 2000 says you can open other people's mail - under certain circumstances. Mothersole and Biscuit decided that this was that certain circumstance. Giving in to temptation, the duo 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 stack up to 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 Mothersole and Biscuit 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...

"We've lived and worked together in Windsor House for five years," explains Biscuit, "watching as London and our friendship changed." Mothersole adds: "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 in 2016, 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. 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).

IF YOU GO:

LETTERS TO WINDSOR HOUSE

Wed 19 April 19:45 (press night performance)
Thu 20 April 19:00, 21:00
Fri 21 April 19:45

At HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester M15 4FN.

Tickets: £12.50 (concessions £10.50)

HOME, Manchester's centre for international contemporary art, theatre, film and books, opened its doors over the 2015 May Bank Holiday weekend. Designed by Dutch architects Mecanoo and featuring a 500-seat theatre, a 150-seat flexible theatre, a 500m2, 4m high gallery space, five cinema screens, digital production and broadcast facilities, a café bar and restaurant, HOME's theatres are a platform for questioning and ambitious artistic projects that involve audiences with new and extraordinary theatrical experiences. The international contemporary visual art programme is dedicated to presenting new commissions by emerging and established artists of regional, national and international significance, with a bold, proactive policy of visual, innovative storytelling with the ability to experiment and explore, probe and provoke, creating a distinct experience for both artists and audiences. HOME's five cinemas showcase the very best in contemporary and classic cinema, screening works by artists and filmmakers both established and new. HOME is a centre for co-production, talent development and artistic creation, dedicated to learning, for people of all ages. A place for new work and playful ideas; of festivals and commissions; of artists and of audience engagement. The patrons of HOME are Danny Boyle, National Theatre Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner, actress SurAnne Jones, playwright and poet Jackie Kay MBE, artists Rosa Barba and Phil Collins, filmmaker Asif Kapadia, and actress and author Meera Syal CBE. Following Letters To Windsor House, HOME stages Panti: High Heels in Low Places presented by Soho Theatre & THISISPOPBABY (25 Apr); Connections 2017 presented by the National Theatre(26-29 Apr); MK Ultra presented by Rosie Kay (3/4 May); Tank presented by Breach Theatre (4-6 May); Jack Rooke: Good Grief presented by Soho Theatre & Jack Rooke (17- 19 May); Kieran Hurley's Heads Up presented by Show & Tell (18-20 May); Rose by Martin Sherman, starring Dame Janet Suzman (25 May-10 June); Operation Black Antler presented by Blast Theory and Hydrocracker (7-17 June); The Wedding presented by Gecko (12-16 Sept); People, Places & Things presented by Headlong, National Theatre, HOME, and the Northcott Theatre, Exeter (22 Sept-7 Oct); and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov directed by Walter Meierjohann (3-25 Nov). www.homemcr.org | @HOME_mcr

SH!T THEATRE has been writing, performing and signing on together since May 2010, and have shown original work at international and national events/organisations such as New York City's HOT! Festival, Dixon Place; Colchester Arts Centre; Duckie @ The Barbican; Duckie @ The RVT; Resonance 104.4 FM;UK Uncut; The Gate Theatre; Richmix; Shambala Festival; The Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Festival of Dangerous Ideas; Emergency Festival Manchester; Lost in Cabaret Festival; the Basement Brighton; Camden People's Theatre; The Point, Eastleigh; The Arches, Glasgow, Summerhall Edinburgh and the Junction Cambridge. From 2011-12 we were artists-in- residence at the Visual Collective, Vyner Street, London. The company's work is informed by our trained disciplines of music, performance art and long-form improvisation. The company were winners of the Total Theatre Award 2013 for emerging artist/company and an Arches Brick Award 2013, and were shortlisted for the 2014 Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. www.shittheatre.co.uk | @shittheatre

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