Past event

Union Chapel, 2017

Date:
14-15 July 2017

In July of 2017, Letters Live’s first London shows of the year took place at the remarkable Union Chapel, a working church and award-winning venue which has been open to the public since being saved from demolition 25 years ago. Over the course of two evenings an impressive array of talent took to the pulpit to breathe life into letters both new and old.

 

Our chosen literacy charity for these two shows was First Story, to whom we subsequently donated £12,100.

Programme

(Click dates to expand/collapse)

 

Clint Dyer

 
You killed my cat

Guy Davenport to the drivers of Lexington

 
I’m still here, trying to make it

Jimi Hendrix to his dad

 
Diversity guarantees our cultural survival

Martin Scorsese to the New York Times

 

 

Colin Firth

 
You will not have my hatred

Antoine Leiris to His Wife’s Killers

 
I do occasionally eat

Lucian Freud to Lynn Barber

 

 

Colin Firth and Taron Egerton

 
I am awfully comfortable

The Kipling Family

 

 

Jon Culshaw

 
My letters are the greatest

Terry Vaught to the Tampa Bay Times

 
Save the land of your birth

Nicholas Cummins to the Duke of Wellington

 
New rubbish dialogue

Alec Guinness to Anne Kaufman

 

 

Michael Palin

 
Two legs are an extravagance

George Bernard Shaw to John Ervine

 
A strange species we are

John Steinbeck to Adlai Stevenson

 
To My Grandchildren

Tony Benn to his grandchildren

 

 

Noma Dumezweni

 
Thinking of you to the end

Rose Schlösinger to Marianne Schlösinger

 
Straighten up and fly right, Banky!

Billie Holliday to Tallulah Bankhead

 
For my Diego

Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera

 

 

Noma Dumezweni and Ophelia Lovibond

 
I will treasure your letter

JK Rowling to Sacia Flowers

 

 

Ophelia Lovibond

 
Everyone has to be a child

Jessica Morley to The Economist

 
Along with this letter comes a play

Shelagh Delaney to Joan Littlewood

 

 

Rob Brydon

 
Life itsef is life

DH Lawrence to Katharine Mansfield

 
Love and garlic

Groucho Marx to Chico Marx

 
How Beautiful!

Salvador Dali to Federico García Lorca

 

 

Simon Callow

 
Ye have made me such a pisser

Lord Edmund Howard to Lady Lisle

 
Nothing is ours, except time

Lucius Annaeus Seneca to Lucilius Junior

 
Get at the very heart of it

Ludwig van Beethoven to Emilie

 

 

Taron Egerton

 
I have had my eye on you

Simon Fallowfield to Mary Foster

 
Darling, I love you

Dylan Thomas to Pamela Johnson

 

 
 

Music

 
 

Kelvin Jones

 
Call you Home
Message in Bottle

 
 

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