By writer Susan Rogers and director Chris Drummond
Inspired by Robert Dessaix’s novel

Robert: “I refuse to start crafting a neat ending to my life!”
Peter: “… Well you’re not a minor short story, the more loose ends the better…”

Stifled by familiar surroundings and familiar platitudes, given a ticking clock by his doctors, Robert escapes to Europe to try and understand his own story. Once there, though, he cannot help but get caught up in other tales spanning centuries; tales united by lonely characters searching for something they can hold on to. Among the discoveries he writes of are the different ways of being a man, the extraordinary sacrifices we make for each other, and even what it might mean to die. Reading his letters home is the man whose life he has shared, who is facing a future alone.

Adapted by writer Susan Rogers and director Chris Drummond from the celebrated novel by Robert Dessaix, Night Letters is epic in its sweep yet deeply intimate in its focus. It recalls both Cloudstreet and Angels in America in its attempt to transcend time to come to some kind of understanding of what it means to be alive, now. What can we discover that might be worth leaving behind?

Performed:
17 February – 12 March 2011
Downstairs Theatre, Seymour Centre