Letters from Lithuania

Directed by Peter Hall and Joanna Garfinkel

Written by Nicola Harwood

Original Concept by Bessie Wapp

August 21-31, 2008, 7:30 pm

Stanley Park Miniature Train, Vancouver

Letters From Lithuania was the adult, outdoor, site specific interdisciplinary performance production about family history and displacement.  This work was set aboard the miniature train in Stanley Park, and combined Mortal Coil's grand scale of theatrical practice with the Eastern European musical repertoire of vocal ensemble Zeelia.

In this production, the audience travelled by train and by foot through a surreal forest of secrets and memories. Through theatre, song cycle, puppetry and stilt work, the show unfolded the remarkable true story of how one man’s fear kept news of survivors of World War II sealed in envelopes and unread for 20 years, and what eventually transpired to reunite the family.

The theatrical techniques explored in this moving and complex production will be further explored in Mortal Coil's next production, The Britannia Project, set in the the historic Britannia Heritage Shipyards in Steveston, Richmond.