Letters Live at Edinburgh International Festival
27th August 2017
Letters penned by James Baldwin, Jimi Hendrix, Yoko Ono and Evelyn Waugh were amongst those brought to life at the Letters Live shows to close the 70th Edinburgh International Festival on Sunday 27th August 2017 at Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre. The star-studded line-up of actors, comedians, musicians, politicians and writers remained a closely guarded secret until the curtain went up for the first show at 7pm in celebration of the art of letter writing, they brought to the stage live performances of correspondences from across the centuries and around the world.
Performers included actors Sanjeev Bhaskar, Ian McShane, Meera Syal, Robert Webb and Harriet Walter, comedian Al Murray and the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon for two performances of Letters Live.
The evening also featured readings of letters written by schoolchildren from Edinburgh who had taken part in Blueprint for the Future, a project that forms part of the International Festival’s year-round work with schools in the city. Inspired by Letters Live, the creative writing and visual art project asks teenagers from secondary schools across Edinburgh to consider how they might impact the future through writing imagined letters from their future selves. The five selected letters were read by Xanthe Harris, Malachy Harris, Stella McGregor, Oscar Bickmore and Grace Bickmore.
The Craigmillar Literacy Trust and Scottish Book Trust were the chosen charities supported through these shows.
The full list of letters and performers are below:
7pm Show
Kelvin Jones
Love Letter
Sanjeev Bhaskar
The spectacle sickened me
George Bernard Shaw to The Times
Harriet Walter
Fortunately, I had my new radio
Mary Grant to A. Walker
John Niven
My muse is not a horse
Nick Cave to MTV
Kate Dickie & Grace McGregor
I will treasure your letter
JK Rowling to Sacia Flowers
Ian McShane
God damn
Pete Muggins to Abraham Lincoln
Louise Brealey
The story comes from within you
Laura Dern to her daughter
Clint Dyer
My Dungeon Shook
James Baldwin to his nephew
Ferdinand Kingsley
A frivolous note
Roald Dahl to his mother
Kate Dickie
I am to be executed
Mary Stuart to Henry III of France
Nick Moran
Come on, George. Loosen up. Swing man.
Frank Sinatra to The LA Times
Meera Syal
Seat 29E
Continental Airlines passenger
Sanjeev Bhaskar
To my ever-loving wife
Don to his wife
Louise Brealey & Ferdinand Kingsley
My Dear Bessie
Chris Baker and Bessie More
Clint Dyer
The Cat Ranch
Jack Lemmon to Walter Matthau
Harriet Walter
It’s up to you
Bette Davis to B.D. Hyman
Ian McShane
Kiss my ass
Bill Baxley to Edward R. Fields
Louise Brealey
My husband did not deserve this
Yoko Ono to New York State Division of Parole
Meera Syal
An absurd accident
Dora Carrington to Gerald Brenan
Kate Dickie
Our Frank
The Connell family to the Ciulla family
Grace Bickmore, Oscar Bickmore,
Stella McGregor, Malachy Harris & Xanthe Harris
Blueprint for the Future letters
Edinburgh school pupils to their future selves
Eddi Reader
Dear John
10pm Show
Eddi Reader
AE Fond Kiss
Robert Burns
John Niven
Thou Eunuch of Language
Robert Burns to a critic
Al Murray
This is quite true
Evelyn Waugh to Laura Waugh
Louise Brealey
AIDS is not a disgrace, it is a TRAGEDY
Patsy Clarke to Jesse Helms
Robert Webb
Thank you, I hope you choke
Beatles fan to Nike, Inc.
Nicola Sturgeon
Books are people
EB White to the children of Troy
Ian McShane & Harriet Walter
I admire your balls
Hunter S. Thompson to Carrie Neftzger
Richard Holloway
We all make mistakes
Sheriff Anwar to Julie and Brian
Ferdinand Kingsley
I have had my eye on you
Simon Fallowfield to Mary Foster
Meera Syal
Thinking of you to the end
Rose Schlösinger to Marianne Schlösinger
Tam Dean Burn
Let me have artists for friends
J.D. Fergusson to Margaret Morris
Sanjeev Bhaskar
A string of veritable psychological peaches
Carl Jung to James Joyce
Nick Moran
Your end is approaching
The FBI to Martin Luther King
Clint Dyer
I’m still here, trying to make it
Jimi Hendrix to his dad
Louise Brealey
Meeting Picasso
Edith Sitwell to Cecil Beaton
Ian McShane
We were brothers long before you were
Groucho Marx to Warner Brothers
Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal
I am so close behind you
Leonard Cohen to Marianne Ihlen
Robert Webb
What do you want from life?
David Lavelle to The Telegraph
Richard Holloway
I do occasionally eat
Lucian Freud to Lynn Barber
Al Murray
Tiger Oil Memos
Edward “Tiger Mike” Davis to his staff
Sanjeev Bhaskar
DO NOT be so bloody vulnerable
Noël Coward to Marlene Dietrich
Eddi Reader
The most beautiful work of all
Patti Smith to Robert Mapplethorpe
Tam Dean Burn
It’s a virus
Tom Waits to The Nation
Robert Webb
Five accidents in two minutes
Fred Allen to the State of New York Insurance Department
Harriet Walter
Dear One
Rachel Carson to Dorothy Freeman
Kelvin Jones
Message in a Bottle
