Dear Elizabeth 2021 Gate @ Theatro Technis

‘This is as live as theatre can come’ WhatsOnStage

The Gate’s critically acclaimed sell-out production of Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl returns for a limited run in Autumn 2021.

'Dear Elizabeth was a thrilling theatrical experience to both participate in, and to watch the other performances. It was a heady cocktail of memory, poetry, surprise encounter, desire, longing, delicious playfulness and searing heartbreak. A love letter to love letters' Tamsin Greig (2019 production)

Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell were two of America’s most brilliant poets. They wrote over 400 letters to each other through their lives; spanning decades, continents, political eras.

Their relationship was messy and profound; platonic and romantic; distant and intense. A love that resists easy definition.

Ellen McDougall’s innovative production features two unrehearsed performers each night. They meet each other, and the audience, at the start of the performance. Everyone discovers the story of Robert and Elizabeth, letter by letter, together.

GATE @ THEATRO TECHNIS.

This production of Dear Elizabeth will take place in a new theatre space for the Gate: Theatro Technis, Camden – a fully accessible space with a larger auditorium to allow for social distancing.

Theatro Technis is a short walk from King’s Cross and Mornington Crescent tube stations and Camden Road overground station.

All performances of Dear Elizabeth are on sale with socially distanced seating and mask wearing is encouraged. The auditorium is fitted with an air ventilation system and extensive cleaning will be in place in all areas.

CAST

We’re excited to announce that two different performers will take the roles of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell for each performance.

1 Sep Angelina Chudi and Jacob Seelochan

2 Sep Jimena Larraguivel and Pete MacHale

3 Sep Mei Mac and Justice Ritchie

4 Sep Jennifer Dixon and Mika Onyx Johnson

6 Sep Waj Ali and Samuelle Durojaiye

7 Sep Martins Imhangbe and Roberta Livingston

8 Sep Catherine Chalk and Arthur Hughes

9 Sep Rufus Love and Anoushka Lucas

10 Sep Eric Kofi Abrefa and Deborah Bahi

11 Sep Pepa Duarte and David Moorst

14 Sep Saffia Kavaz and Michelle Tiwo

15 Sep Shannon Tarbet and Saskia Craft-Stanley

16 Sep Esh Alladi and Lauren Ziebart

17 Sep Kae Alexander and Montel Bowen

18 Sep Joshua Griffin and Minhee Yeo

Get Tickets

Performances: 1 - 18 September

Evenings : 7.30pm

Press Night : 7 September

Captioned Performance : 9 September

Audio Described Performance : 14 September

Young People’s Night U30 £7 : 15 September

Supporters Evening : 16 September

Cast & CREATIVES

Sarah Ruhl – Writer

Sarah Ruhl's plays include How to Transcend a Happy Marriage; For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday; The Oldest Boy; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for best new play); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Passion Play (Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Orlando; Late: a cowboy song; Dear Elizabeth; Dead Man's Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award); Eurydice; and Stage Kiss. She is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country and have also been produced internationally, and translated into over twelve languages. Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright award, the Susan Smith Blackburn award, the Whiting award, the Lily Award, a PEN award for mid-career playwrights, and the MacArthur "genius" award. Her book of essays 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write was published by Faber and Faber was a Times Notable Book of the Year. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

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Jessica Hung Han Yun – Lighting Designer

Lighting Designer credits include: EQUUS (ETT); Pah-la (Royal Court); Armadillo (The Yard); Seven Methods of Killing Kylie (Royal Court);The Human Voice (Gate Theatre); Cuckoo (Metal Rabbit Productions); Snowflake (Arts Old Fire Station); One (Bert & Nasi International Tour); Forgotten (Yellow Earth & Moongate UK Tour); Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre); Into The Clouds (Nonsuch Theatre Company International Tour); Hive City Legacy (Hot Brown Honey & Roundhouse);The Party’s Over (Nonsuch Theatre Company); Gypsy Disco (Boomtown Festival); Becoming Shades (Chivaree Circus); Nine Foot Nine (Sleepless Theatre Company).

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Jon Nicholls – Composer and Sound Designer

Jon Nicholls studied composition at the London College of Music and electroacoustic music at Dartington. Music / sound scores for theatre include Spring Storm, Beyond The Horizon and The Holy Rosenbergs (National Theatre); Bakersfield Mist (Duchess), Bracken Moor, Mermaid (Shared Experience), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Sheffield Crucible); Yerma (Gate); The Norman Conquests (Liverpool Playhouse); Red Light Winter, The Welsh Boy, deadkidsongs, The Double and the Spanish Golden Age season (Theatre Royal Bath, Ustinov); The Wind In The Willows, Dancing at Lughnasa, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Eden End, Humble Boy, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, In Praise of Love and the Young America season (Northampton), Blue Remembered Hills, Art, The Changeling, Silas Marner (Theatr Clwyd); Rutherford and Son (Northern Stage); Katherine DeSouza, The Mothership, Linda (Birmingham Rep); Amadeus, Masterclass, Be My Baby (Derby Playhouse); Private Lives, Much Ado About Nothing, If I Were You, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Arcadia, The Heretic, The Seagull (Library Theatre, Manchester); The Picture (Salisbury Playhouse). Screen work includes scores for numerous documentaries for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, and over 30 short films. Extensive music and sound design for BBC radio drama includes: The Broken Word, Pink Mist, Erebus, Laurels and Donkeys, In Memoriam, At The Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Between Friends, Babel’s Tower, Faust, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Caesar Price Our Lord, It’s Better with Animals, The Histories of Herodotus, The Time Machine, Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Five Fever Tales and What I Heard About Iraq (Prix Italia Jury Special Mention). He's composed two operas: Falling Across and most recently Flicker which was premiered at Sadlers Wells in 2013.

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Xanthus – Assistant Director

Xanthus is the assistant director on Dear Elizabeth.

Previous theatre credits include assisting on Changing Destiny (The Young Vic).

Directing The Gin Game (Chiswick Playhouse), Love Always Wins (Uproot Productions), PYNEAPPLE (Paradise by Way of Kensal Green), So Long, Babe (CLF Arts Cafe), Care - Working Laboratory (The Bunker Theatre).

Film credits include Posters (Mountview).

Assisted on A Moment's Peace (The Hope Theatre).

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Tyler Forward – Associate Lighting Designer

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Tingying Dong – Associate Sound Designer

Ting is a sound designer, composer, sound technician, and theatre maker. She trained at LAMDA.

She was nominated twice for Off West End Theatre Award for Best Sound Design.

She co-founded Out of the Blue Theatre in 2020 and sound designed their debut production IMAGINARIUM, an immersive online audio experience.

Her recent sound design credits include Klippies (Young Vic), The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars (Theatre Royal Stratford East), My Son’s A Queer But What Can You Do? (Turbine Theatre), ENG-ER-LAND (Jermyn Street Theatre), Chamber 404 (Camden People’s Theatre), Blood Orange (Old Red Lion Theatre), Jerker (King’s Head Theatre), Mr Kolpert, Yen, The Arsonists (LAMDA), Bin Juice, Kraken, The First (VAULT Festival).

Her recent associate sound design credits include Extinct (Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Her recent composing credits include Humane (radio play), Medea / Worn, My Last Duchess (short films).

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Roni Neale – Stage Manager on book

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Natalia Kheldouni – Stage Manager

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Bob Bagley – Production Manager

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Tom Burbage – Production LX

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Ben Smith – Production Sound

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Mitchell Knight – Stage Crew

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Francesca Henry – rehearsal performer and devisor (2021)

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Ellen McDougall – Artistic Director and Joint CEO (2017-2022)

Ellen is Artistic Director at the Gate Theatre. Previous credits at the Gate include – Dear Elizabeth (2019), Effigies of Wickedness (2018), The Unknown Island (2017) and Idomeneus (2014). Other credits include Our Town (Regents Open Air) and The Wolves (Stratford East); Othello (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe); the Lyric’s annual pantomime – Aladdin (2016) and Cinderella (2015); The Rolling Stone (Orange Tree Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange); The Remains of Maisie Duggan (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); The Glass Menagerie (Headlong); Anna Karenina (Manchester Royal Exchange); Henry the Fifth (Unicorn Theatre); Glitterland (Secret Theatre/Lyric Hammersmith) and Ivan and the Dogs (Actors Touring Company/Soho Theatre) – nominated for an Olivier Award. Ellen was formerly part of the Secret Theatre Company at the Lyric Hammersmith. She trained as an assistant to Katie Mitchell and Marianne Elliott. She was awarded an International Artists’ Development Award (ACE/British Council) in 2012.

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Hannah Ringham – Collaborator

Hannah Ringham is a co-founder and performer of the UK award winning performance collective SHUNT. Her recent theatre credits include Islands (Bush Theatre), The Architects (Shunt), The Present (Unicorn Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre), Cadavre Exquis (2012), Contain Violence – Site Specific (Lyric Hammersmith), Ooogly Boogly (2008), Tropicana (Shunt). She has performed and toured internationally with many other companies including Tim Crouch, Kassys (a collaborative performance with Kassys, The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma and Nicole Beutler), Caroline Horton, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

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Male Arucci

Male is part of the 2022 Prayer Workshop cohort

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Moi Tran – Co-Director

Moi Tran is an Artist/Performance maker/Researcher and Designer, her practice explores the intersections between Contemporary Art and Live Performance. Tran’s work includes as set & costume designer for Theatre, Film, Dance and Opera. She is founder of East Asian Ticket Club, an engagement platform for the BESEA community. Recent Theatre include: Chiaroscuro(Bush);White Pearl(Royal Court);Dear Elizabeth(Gate); Summer Rolls (Park); Under the Umbrella (Belgrade/Tara Arts);Deluge (Hampstead). Recent Art Performance include: The Bolero Effect - (VCCA Vietnam ,Hanoi);The Circuit- A Movement Scenario (Prague Quadrennial/OvalSpace/SPILL Festival);Three Women and a Duck (Vietnam, Laos, Thailand);The Other day you sat too far away from me( Henry Moore Courtyard);SLEEP( Live Art Development Agency, Royal Court). Recent Awards/Commissions include: ArtHouse Artist in Residence;SPILL Festival; Curator Encounter Bow Chisenhale Dance; British Council Vietnam 2019;Arts and Culture Fellowship SEA 2019; OV12 Artist 2018.

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Nigel Barrett – Performer

Nigel Barrett is an award winning actor and theatre maker. He is a member of the shunt collective and has been working with Louise Mari since 2006, when they started the shunt lounge together – the infamous arts venue under London Bridge Station. He is also an associate director with Sulayman Al-Bassam Theatre and Sabab, with whom he made The Arabic Shakespeare Trilogy for the RSC, Peter Brooks Bouffe du Nord and BAM New York. Theatre includes :- THE MYSTERIES (Royal Exchange Manchester), 100: UNEARTHED (Wildworks), PARTY SKILLS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD (Manchester International Festival and Shoreditch Town Hall), KINGDOM COME (RSC), MARGATE/DREAMLAND (Shoreditch Town Hall), BLASTED (Barrel Organ / Styx), Big Bad Wolf in BADDIES the Musical (Unicorn Theatre), THE EYE TEST (National Theatre), EVERYONE (Chris Goode and Co), THE IPHIGENIA QUARTET (The Gate), CYRANO DE BERGERAC (Northern Stage Co), PRAXIS MAKES PERFECT (NTW / Berlin Festspiele), MAD MAN (Theatre Royal Plymouth), THERE HAS POSSIBLY BEEN AN INCIDENT (Royal Exchange Manchester), GET STUFF BREAK FREE ( National Theatre), THE PASSION (National Theatre Wales/Wildworks ), PERICLES (Regents Park) and RICHARD III - An Arab Tragedy (RSC). Film and television includes :- DOCTORS , CYCLES , THE GOSPEL OF US, THE BOAT, HELLO YOU, CASUALTY, MEET THE PILTDOWNS, HAIRY EYEBALL, DAWSON’S CREEK SPECIAL, THE MYSTERIES, DEADLINE, THE LENS, SEXUAL HEALING, ENGLAND MY ENGLAND

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Nina Bowers – Performer

Nina Bowers is an Actor and Theatre Maker, Her theatre credits include THE HISTORIES (Shakespeare's Globe) THE WOLVES (Theatre Royal Stratford East) directed by,Ellen McDougall; THE MAGIC FLUTE (Aix-en-Provence Festival) for Complicité,directed by Simon McBurney; CRAVE (The Pit, Barbican) directed by Julie Cunningham; TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES 1992 (The Gate Theatre) directed by Ola Ince and TOMORROW I'LL BE TWENTY (regional tour) for Complicité,directed by Catherine Alexander. Nina also collaborated with Ellen and Hannah on the making of DEAR ELIZABETH at The Gate. She is a member of DIRTY RASCALS THEATRE COLLECTIVE and has written and performed two original shows: NINA TALKS ABOUT HER VALUES and AN EVENING WITH THE MANTIS FROM ATLANTIS both at Camden People’s Theatre.

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