Credit: Becca Hunt
By Grace Hatchell
There are possessions that are simply possessions. And then there are the things that somehow become attached to a person, a moment or an entire part of our lives.
That difficult distinction sits at the heart of G R I E F C A S E, a new production from Tailwind Physical Theatre coming to The Hope Theatre in Islington this autumn.
Running from 22 September to 3 October, the production marks The Hope Theatre’s first ever co-production and forms part of its new Autumn Season.
At its centre is G, who returns to his late mother’s flat to clear it after the council has already rented the property to another family.
It is no longer his family’s home, but nor has their presence entirely disappeared.
The rooms still contain traces of the people who lived there, the lives they shared and the person G’s mother once hoped he would become. The production uses this strange in-between space to explore grief, memory and the emotional weight we can attach to seemingly ordinary belongings.
It’s a simple premise, but potentially a very powerful one.
Grief isn’t always contained within the obvious moments of loss. Sometimes it appears much later, when a cupboard needs emptying, an object needs deciding upon or a familiar room suddenly belongs to somebody else.
G R I E F C A S E looks at that process of letting go and at the way memories themselves can change. Tailwind Physical Theatre hopes the production can create a space in which experiences of grief are shared rather than avoided, building empathy and connection between audiences.
Ru Lawrence, who also wrote the production, plays G. Collette Hodson appears as Mum and ensemble, Jack St Leger as Garry and ensemble, and Poppy Janisch as Lucy and ensemble.
The production has been devised by Tailwind Physical Theatre and is directed by Jack Mckee, with composition by Phil Roscoe, lighting design by Laurel Marks, sound design by Ru Lawrence and set design by Lawrence and Toby Hampton.
For Tailwind, the work also forms part of a wider ambition to make brave, risk-taking theatre which amplifies underrepresented voices.
It feels particularly at home at The Hope, an intimate 50-seat theatre above the Hope and Anchor pub in Islington, which describes its purpose as giving audiences and theatre-makers somewhere to explore big ideas and stories with something to say about the world around us.
There may be no easy way to pack grief into a case and put it away.
G R I E F C A S E seems interested in what happens when we have to try.
G R I E F C A S E runs at The Hope Theatre, 207 Upper Street, Islington, from 22 September to 3 October 2026, Tuesday to Saturday at 7pm. Tickets are priced at £10, £16 and £18
https://www.thehopetheatre.com/griefcase
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