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The Hundred Year Old Letter (Susan Elkin reviews)

The Hundred Year Old Letter

Johnny Handscombe

Bridge House Theatre, Penge

Good Wolf

Star rating 3

In 2021 a letter was delivered to an address in Sydenham – to a house which is now ten flats but which was once a gracious family residence. Christabel Mennell, who is in Bath, is apologising to Katie Marsh. The  letter was written in 1916.  Once the story hit the news it led to worldwide, fascinated speculation.

That is the basis for Johnny Handscombe’s quirky little 60 minute play which sits rather well at the Bridge House because it’s a local story.  He gives us four characters – the couple who found the letter in the building’s entrance hall among the pizza and curry hunk mail and two other women. All multi-role effectively as they discuss the letter and try out different scenarios.

There’s a lot of information tucked into this play as, for example one tells the others who the Quakers were, or sums up a century of Irish history. It just stops short of being didactic – but only just. Gradually we learn from their research (in real life a lot of this was the work of the Norwood Society) who these two women were, what they did later and when they died.

There is a lot of emphasis on what the ‘circle’, in which Charlotte said something she later regretted, might have been. Was it a séance? Or could it have been a Quaker meeting? Or something else?

It’s a decent enough piece of  community theatre by a newish local company although I don’t think much is gained from the mini-prologue and epilogue which explore the nature of rhythm and seem to belong in a different play.

This show also has a run on the Edinburgh Fringe next month.

Author information
Susan Elkin Susan Elkin is an education journalist, author and former secondary teacher of English. She was Education and Training Editor at The Stage from 2005 - 2016
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