A reflection on The Lost Letters

This week, our Learning & Participation Director Thomas Hardy talks about The Lost Letters, our 2019 community project designed to give the people of Saffron Walden the opportunity to work creatively together.

Almost exactly a year ago a company of over 50 took to the Saffron Hall stage to perform The Lost Letters - the culmination of several months work at evenings and weekends in venues across Saffron Walden. The company included participants from our Together in Sound programme, students from Saffron Walden County High and others who responded to our call outs in local press and through our partners including Fairycroft House, Mind in West Essex and Creative Walden. Along with theatre director Rachel Yates, musician and composer Sam Glazer, musicians from our Resident Orchestra Britten Sinfonia and singer Rosie Adediran, they created a performance which told the stories of those on stage through movement, words, and music.

The performance in Saffron Hall was superbly captured by Paul Bellany of Creative Walden and can be viewed above. With our doors currently closed, the film is a powerful reminder of the importance of coming together to share stories and experiences. It reminds us how taking part in a creative process, or sharing in the outcome of that process can connect people across ages, backgrounds and experience. Although plans for our next similar project have had to be put on ice due to the current pandemic, this ethos remains at the heart of everything Saffron Hall does and we look forward to sharing further opportunities to be a part of it very soon.

The Lost Letters was a Saffron Hall project delivered in partnership with Orchestras Live and in association with Anglia Ruskin University, Britten Sinfonia, Creative Walden, Fairycroft House, Mind in West Essex and Uttlesford District Council.