A hearing man reunites with his deaf cousin at a family funeral. Long-simmering tensions
and resentments come to the surface.

One letter throws the audience directly into a funeral setting, with one man (Zaqi Ismail) giving a eulogy, with his deaf cousin watching by his side. Zaqi’s eulogy and the evolving production explores the relationship between ‘deaf’ and ‘dead’. Initially, this is introduced to us through a play on the common autocorrect mistake that turns ‘deaf’ into ‘dead’. However, as the eulogy evolves, the audience starts to see how much the experiences of the deaf community can echo the autocorrect error.

“This short film is about the isolation experienced growing up as the only deaf person in a hearing family… something many deaf people have experienced. There’s now a name for it – Dinner Table Syndrome. Many articles have been written about it, but to date, there are no films that depict it clearly” – Brian Duffy, Director.

One Letter illustrates the marginalisation of the deaf community in the UK, extending the analogy to show that deaf people can feel ‘dead’ in society – invisible, ignored, and unacknowledged.