It’s a quaint memory, the snail mail letter – a concept as strange to young people today as carrier pigeons were in my day. Yet story books keep the concept alive and if a child is lucky, someone might post them a birthday card at least, if not a hand-written letter, just so they can experience the special thrill of receiving something personal in the post; the feel of it, the smell of it, the way it looks …  

Of course digitising communications and sending them through cyberspace is far more efficient compared with the convoluted infrastructure required to hand-deliver physical letters. And if Capital E’s The Lost Letter Office – created by Jen McArthur and a large talented team – is to be believed, dealing with lost letters is as chaotic as it archaic. 

But first we are treated to a whimsical portrayal of a light-hearted Postie by wondrously loose-limbed Braedyn Togi, as he delivers diverse letter to the array of post boxes adorning the stage (set design by Nick Blake).

Sadly there are no letters for the box with a Heart on it, beside which an intriguingly-dressed woman we will come to know as a travelling magician called NahNah (Jen McArthur), waits in poignant anticipation. And bright and lively Nixie (Johanna Cosgrove) has to try staying positive when there is no mail popped in her Star-branded letter box either.  

Splendid animated backdrop projections, by Jason Longstaff, takes us on the Postie’s route, and outside and inside Nixie’s and NahNah’s homes – where we discover Nixie would also like to do magic tricks, one with a red feather in particular. Eventually both hit on the same idea – to write a letter to someone else (or is it to themselves? I confess I am not attentive enough to notice whose letter is addressed to a Star and whose to a Heart.)

The journeys the letters take in a wind-blown world where it rains, on occasion, and pooping seagulls play havoc with them and the Postie, add to the show’s visual magic – enhanced by Rose Langabeer’s compositions and sound design. The Postie’s repurposing his water bottle to becomes a jetpack on his back is a special crowd favourite.  

And who should deliver the lost ‘hero’ letters to the Lost Letter Office – which has lost one letter from the name over it entrance and is about to lose another – but a Carrier Kererū (puppets by Jon Coddington).

Three would-be sleuths treat us to an exemplary display of red-nose clowning as they attempt to work out where the lost letters should go – and there are stacks of them! Jen is formidably comical as the massively shoulder-padded, officious and briskly marching Generalissimo, Stamp. In total contrast, Braedyn’s Sandy is the wacky personification of chaos. And Johanna’s ebullient Pug is inspiringly delighted to be in a uniform and blowing a whistle.

No wonder so many lost letters remain lost. There is an amazing wires-and-wheels contraption that carries letters over and under, occasionally spitting one out for closer examination. A projected image gives a whole new meaning to ‘chain letters’. A gag with ringing phones leads to a tin-can telephone being the conveyor of urgent information … There is a box full of bubbles and another with an elephant, or its trumpeting trunk anyway … They have to be resealed quick smart.

Somehow, amid all this flurry of earnest action, which seems to get them nowhere fast, the Heart and Star-addressed letters get sent on their way, to be delivered at last by the jet-propelled Postie.

Not only do NahNah and Nixie delight in getting letters at last, they also meet each other – and NahNah completes Nixie’s red feather trick before letting Nixie make her disappear … and, after some worrying moments, reappear.  

Accolades are also due to the Writer Renata Hopkins; Costume Designer and Maker Anne de Geus; Magic Consultants Brendan Dooley and Nopera Whitley, and Magic Maker Chris Murphy of Oz Illusions. They complete a big creative team that proves how a well-resourced, fully professional production company can raise the bar of creative excellence.  

This one day public season (3 showings) of The Lost Letter Office plus performances for schools today (Monday) brings its national tour to an end, so this is a ‘review of record’. 

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