Past event
Date:
10-15 March 2016
Letters Live returned to London’s iconic Freemasons’ Hall, one of the finest Art Deco buildings in Britain, for another thrilling run of shows.
Performers included Benedict Cumberbatch, Caitlin Moran, Dominic West, Emiliana Torrini, Geoffrey Palmer, Gillian Anderson, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McKellen, James Rhodes, Jarvis Cocker, John Bishop, Jude Law, Juliet Stevenson, Lemn Sissay, Louise Brealey, Mariella Frostrup, Matt Berry, Meera Syal, Nitin Sawhney, Olivia Colman, Omid Djalili, Rag ‘N’ Bone Man, Riz Ahmed, Russell Brand, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Shami Shakrabarti, Toby Jones and Tom Odell.
Inspired by Letters of Note, the bestselling anthology compiled by Shaun Usher, and To the Letter by Simon Garfield, Letters Live is a series of curated, live events that celebrate the enduring power of literary correspondence.
Performed by a remarkable and surprise cast each night, Letters Live is a unique event that is heartbreaking, euphoric, hilarious and inspiring in equal measure. Those who have previously attended Letters Live will know how memorable these evenings are. In addition, a portion of the proceeds from each show are channeled towards a number of carefully selected literacy charities to support the important work they do.
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The most astonishing things
Madame de Sevigne to Philippe-Emmanuel de Coulanges
We press you close and kiss you with all our strength
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to Their Sons
My heart almost stood still
Helen Keller to the NY Symphony Orchestra
I know what taste is & what vulgarity is
Tennesee Williams to Joseph Bren
Your organization has failed
Eleanor Roosevelt to DAR
Thank you
Dr Mark Taubert to David Bowie
The mingled souls of wheat & corn
R.G Ingersoll and Rev Dr JM Buckley
Federal Agent at Large
Elvis Presley to US President Richard Nixon
We all feel like that now and then
Sir Archibald Clark Kerr to Lord Reginald Pembroke
You Babylonian Scullion
Mehmed IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks
I think you’re a damn fool
Norman Mailer to His Father
The best Memo ever
Matt Stone
The parakeet has a goiter
Brian Doyle to Various
The loss of you lingers
Karin Cook to Joan Cook Carpenter
Love, Dad
Ronald Reagan to Michael Reagan
I would like to retain ‘fart in your general direction’
Mark Forstater to Michael White
Sorrow passes and we remain
Henry James to Grace Norton
A string of veritable psychological peaches
Carl Jung to James Joyce
J.S Bach G Major Prelude from Suite nr 1
Own letter
My Husband did not deserve this
Yoko Ono to New York State Division of Parole
As civil as their bad breath would allow
Jane Austin to Cassandra Austen
Dear People of Europe
Refugee Hossein
Torturing the Saxophone
Robert Crumb to Mats Gustafsson
Sleep well my love
Brian Keith to Dave
Tiger Oil Memos
Tiger Mike to Staff
Your eager Mother
Jessie Bernard to Her Unborn Child
How I would like to work for you!
Eudora Welty to The New Yorker
An absurd accident
Dora Carrington to Gerald Brenan
I weep and weep and weep
Nadezhda Mandelstam to Osip Mandelstam
Don’t let anybody raise you
Maya Angelou to Herself
Dear Internet
Tina Fey to Internet Commenters
I miss my biggest heart
Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert
We formed only one being
Maud Gonne to WB Yeats
John Lennon signed my album
Mark Chapman to a Memorabilia Expert
People simply empty out
Charles Bukowski to John Martin
This is quite true
Evelyn Waugh to Laura Waugh
J.S Bach G Major Prelude from Suite nr 1
What great births you have witnessed!
Mark Twain to Walt Whitman
Who is this kid?
Tom Hanks to George Roy Hill
Letter to Teenage Girls during The Bad Years
I’m scared I’m going to lose you
Liz Clegg to Jamil
A Letter from a Mother
Chrissy Hart to JK Rowling
Give Women The Vote
Bertha Brewster to The Telegraph
I see you my beauty boy
Elizabeth Taylor to Her Missing Cat
Every ounce of my energy
Bertrand Russell to Oswald Moseley
I am the dead one
Spike Milligan to George Harrison
I like words
Robert Pirosh to Various
Your miserable friend, Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll to Annie Rogers
A Letter from a Mother
Chrissy Hart to JK Rowling
I embrace you with all my heart
Albert Camus to Louis Germain
Thinkers and Doers
Buckminster Fuller to Michael
Dear People of Europe
Refugee Hossein
Try and be a Dinketysnipsy girl
Roald Dahl to Elizabeth
Make your soul grow
Kurt Vonnegut to Xavier High School
Five accidents in two minutes
Fred Allen to the State of New York Insurance Department
It is a stunning script
Michael Powell to Martin Scorsese
Be your own self. Love what YOU love
Ray Bradbury to William Stanhope
Your Road Manager needs a Poke
Anonymous Child to Rolling Stones
The mingled souls of wheat & corn
R.G Ingersoll to Rev Dr JM Buckley
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Beatrix Potter to Noel Moore
The Matchbox
Sylvia Townsend Warner to Alyse Gregory
Blue Peter letter
Fortunately I had my new radio
Edna Johnson to Ontario School
I can’t hear you
Katharine Hepburn to Spencer Tracey
Dear One
Rachel Carson to Dorothy Freeman
I can bear anything but my own contempt
Mary Wollstonecraft to An Acquaintance
I have not shot her yet
Dorothy Parker to Seward Collins
I think I no how to make people or animals alive
Anthony Hollander to Blue Peter
PS This is my favourite Memo ever
Matt Stone to the MPAA
Sleep well my love
Brian Keith to Dave
America’s Youngest Ambassador
Samantha Smith to Yuri Andropov
Our differences unite us
Barack Obama and Sophia Bailey-Klugh
He is not a forgiving cat
John Cheever to Josie Herbst
The spectacle sickened me
George Bernard Shaw to The Times
Prayers for Rain
Winston Churchill to The Times
She Wants You
Love Letter
Call You Home
Message in a Bottle
What great births you have witnessed!
Mark Twain to Walt Whitman
My dear little Grandfather
Marcel Proust to His Grandfather
To: My Widow
Robert Falcon Scott to His Wife
Dear Bessie
Chris Barker and Bessie Moore
Reputed Bantling
F.Scott Fitzgerald to Andrew Turbull
I embrace you with all my heart
Albert Camus to Louis Germain
Stupidity is a crime
Dalton Trumbo to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital
This is quite true
Evelyn Waugh to Laura Waugh
My Dungeon Shook
James Baldwin to His Nephew
Your type is dime a dozen
Hunter S Thompson to Anthony Burgess
To All Reporters
A Newspaper Editor to His Staff
We all feel like that now and then
Sir Archibald Clark Kerr to Lord Reginald Pembroke
The appalling horror
Florence Nightingale to William Bowman
Dear Friend
Hermione Gingold to A Friend
I love my wife. My wife is dead
Richard Feynman to Arline Feynman
New Rubbish Dialogue
Alec Guinness to Anne Kaufman
The most astonishing things
Madame de Sevigne to Philippe-Emmanuel de Coulanges
Ought women not to be abolished
Clementine Churchill to The Times
Nothing is ours except time
Lucius Annaeus Seneca to Lucilius Junior
Our Frank
The Connell Family to the Ciulla Family
My heart almost stood still
Helen Keller to the NY Symphony Orchestra
Autumn Sun
Tides
Prophecy
Sunny Road
The Grand Bi-Polar Old Duke of York
Mark Piggott to Private Eye
Torturing the Saxophone
Robert Crumb to Mats Gustafsson
Sleep well my love
Brian Keith to Dave
Is it suitable for framing
Mark Twain to William Dean Howells
PS This is my favourite Memo ever
Matt Stone to the MPAA
Thou Eunuch of language
Robert Burns to a Critic
Arkell V Pressdram
Private Eye to Goodman Derrick & Co
Marcello Adagio
Bach
I am afraid of everything
Sergei Rachmaninoff to Marietta Shaginyan
To my old Master
Jourdon Anderson to P.H Anderson
A witless and meddlesome old ass
Dalton Trumbo to W.F.K
Tiger Oil Memos
Tiger Mike to Staff
Even my bones seem to cry for you
Georgia O’Keefe to Alfred Stieglitz
Fortunately I had my new radio
Mary Grant to A.Walker
The most astonishing things
Madame de Sevigne to Philippe-Emmanuel de Coulanges
Dear Internet
Tina Fey to Internet commenters
I hope you don’t feel too disappointed
Eric Idle to John Major
Part of this world, part of another
Gene Wilder to Mel Stuart
The Most Extraordinary Scene
Captain Reginald John Armes to his wife
You Babylonian Scullion
Mehmed IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks
Straighten up and fly right, baby!
Billie Holiday to Tallulah Bankhead
Let me Alone
Katherine Anne Porter to Hart Crane
People
Nobody Knows
You Babylonian Scullion
Mehmed IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks
DO
Sol Lewitt to Eva Hesse
Like a tree in full bearing
Charlotte Bronte to W.S Williams
Dear One
Rachel Carson to Dorothy Freeman
Dear People of Europe
Refugee Letter
Five accidents in two minutes
Fred Allen to to the State of New York Insurance Department
Tears don’t flow the same in space
Frank Culbertson to Earth
I’ve got a hunch
Thomas Wolfe to Maxwell Perkins
Fortunately I had my new radio
Edna Johnson to Ontario School
I see him in the Star
Emily Dickenson to Susan Dickenson
The Matchbox
Sylvia Townsend Warner to Alyse Gregory
Look for me in the sunset
Emmie to Sumner
I Found your Wallet
Anonymous to Reilly Flaherty
To All Reporters
A Newspaper Editor to His Staff
Don’t expect me to be sane anymore
Henry Miller to Anaïs Nin
Your type is a dime a dozen
Hunter S. Thompson to Anthony Burgess
He is not a forgiving cat
John Cheever to Josie Herbst
IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER
William Safire to H.R Haldeman
I would like to give you your own history
Juan Gelman to His Grandchild
This wretched comedy as a man
Lili Elvenes to “Christian”
I see no beauty in lopsided true love
Elisabeth Smart to George Barker
Bothering Heights
Gone
1st of July
In my time of Dying
