Yours Sincerely ☆☆
The Vaults Festival
Wednesday 30th January
Yours Sincerely has an intriguing premise; the young Will Jackson (the writer and performer) has accidentally stolen a book of 300 second class stamps and he vows to start a ‘project’ to occupy his time. We hear what it involves as he writes a letter to his ex-flatmate and best friend Heather. He has decided to write letters to “friends, family and acquaintances; to those I know and those I don’t”, sometimes he will sign off as himself and sometimes using an alias.
He feels liberated enough to use the first letter to confess using Heather’s bedroom for a Grindr hook-up “because it was tidier than mine”. He misses Heather and writing a letter helps him to articulate his feelings. He also vandalised her Star Wars colouring in book with random penis shapes (the audience all get a handout as if wishing to prove this).
He writes to Cadburys as a 9yr old called Sam and gets a reply from a spokesperson who includes a £3 voucher free chocolates. He does a crazed dance of celebration. Its silly and its camp and joyful.
We often only learn important facts about him once he describes them in his letters such as how he gets fired from the shoe shop for a fake letter, and that there are storm clouds on the horizon as he has a lump on his testicle. It leaves you feeling that the all the promise of a young graduate trying to make his way in the world is fading and that Will feels under-employed, under-challenged and a little bit lost.
The piece needs stronger direction from Anna Himali Howard as the play depends on strong characterisation masterfully portrayed. The people in his letters are instead represented by the merest sketch of characterisation; a whisper; the mere breath of fairies and unicorns; imperceptible to the casual onlooker in that they all merge into Will Jackson himself.
The play does have something to say about the modern condition of Generation Z. As Will says, no–one his age does letters anymore (and tellingly he decides to take a break from social media); “You only realise what’s important to say when you put pen to paper”.
www.vaultfestival.com until February 3rd
REVIEW: JONNY WARD
