The Letter

Suzanne’s daughter, Elizabeth, is in hospital following an apparent suicide attempt when she discovers her husband is having an affair. She breaks down, desperate and alone, and there on the counter she sees the letter. Susanne can’t quite explain the impulse that makes her open the letter – what compels her to read the warm outpourings of love from a lonely old lady, Ella, to the grandchild she has long been searching for. Something in the words touches her heart at a time when it is frozen solid with pain. She doesn’t intend to deceive when she sits down to reply, assuming the identity of Ella’s grand-daughter Trudy whom she knows to be dead.

Through the subsequent exchange of letters the lonely life of Ella, forced to give her only child away at birth, unfolds and in addition support and advice for Susanne pours forth. And, for a time, Susanne finds solace as she sets about rebuilding her life and her relationship with her daughter. Then Elizabeth, devastated by the discovery that her father is not “away on business”, finds the letters. Distraught by this further deception she confronts her mother and insists they visit Ella in Cornwall and face the truth.

The Letter is the story of one woman’s journey towards true independence. Though fraught with pain and heartache, it is a journey of discovery tinged with humour, from deceit and betrayal towards truth and hope.

Currently in Development.