Poetry / Reviews
Review: Luke Wright: Later Life Letter, The Wardrobe Theatre – ‘A witty, imaginative, beautiful and accessible hour’
“Sorry,” says performance poet Luke Wright at the outset of his show Later Life Letter, “but I’m a bit much. Even the people who love me say that.”
Being loved – and being ‘a bit much’ – lie at the heart of this quickfire show from one of Britain’s best-regarded live poets; he entertains an audience with an hour of material that, in many other hands, could’ve been 60 minutes of pure ‘woe-is-me’.
Instead, Wright takes us through the story of his birth to a 21-year-old mother who didn’t even know she was pregnant, giving him up for adoption just weeks old, with imagination, wit and poetry that is simultaneously beautiful and accessible.
True, he has had a good life since, in the arms of loving and stable adoptive parents, but as he acknowledges, there is a primal wound at the heart of him which may take a lifetime to heal. The title of this show is taken from correspondence that the social worker who assisted in his adoption wrote back in 1982, with the idea that this might be passed on to him at a later date, so he could at least understand the circumstances of his birth.
And so begins an oral and physical journey, not to achieve the cliched ‘Long Lost Family’ ending of a weepy emotional reunion with his birth parents, but rather an attempt to acknowledge what it is to spring from a young woman who places you straight into the arms of ‘parents’ who aren’t biologically yours, but will take on that role with the fullness of love and warmth.
Luke Wright, Later Life Letter, A story of adoption, family and love (Little, Brown Book Group, January 2026) – photo: courtesy of the author
Along the way, he reveals that his birth mother already had two other children, and that his younger brother Scott (who was also taken on by his adoptive parents) is, in fact, a blood relative, having been born of the same mother. “Up until my 30s, I thought this was just a weird coincidence”, he jokes.
He tells us that he wasn’t even named at birth, and that although he was born in a tower block on a notoriously rough London council estate, he spent the first three years of his life in salubrious Highgate, later moving to a leafy part of north east Essex.
He finds out that an older sibling has become a drum ‘n’ bass DJ, which prompts a hilarious and imaginative riff on the story of his first few weeks of life, from the point of view of a Daily Mail article, a film trailer, a TV reporter’s unscripted conversation with his producer and, yes, the rapping of a drum ‘n’ bass DJ.
There are moments in the show, for example when Wright discovers his birth mother’s Facebook profile and sees that she seems to be very family-orientated, that could easily reduce both audience and performer to tears. Yet, just at these points, the poet chips in with a sardonic comment or quip which pulls us all back from the brink. Is this a clever response or a display of emotional defensiveness? The answer is that it’s probably both, which makes him all the more engaging and relatable.
Wright evidently yearns for connection, but is equally happy to puncture the mawkishness and sentimentality so often associated with such ‘journeys’ to find the thing he most needs, proving that the old adage ‘It’s not what happens to you in life that counts, but how you interpret it’ is a vital piece of wisdom for any seeker to follow.
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Luke Wright: Later Life Letter is at The Wardrobe Theatre on February 10-12 at 7.30pm. For late ticket availability, visit www.thewardrobetheatre.com. Follow Luke @lukewrightpoet.
Luke Wright: Later Life Letter: A story of adoption, family and love is out now (published by Little, Brown Book Group, January 2026).
Main photo: Luke Wright
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