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Archive event

31 May - 2 June 2025

Letters Live returns to The Town Hall in Midtown, Manhattan, for a run of three completely unique back-to-back shows on the 31st May, 1st June and 2nd June 2025, each enchanting New Yorkers with the enduring power of literary correspondence. Every Letters Live performance is a one-of-a-kind experience, with a different array of incredible performers reading remarkable letters written over the centuries and from around the world, authored by luminaries as varied as David Bowie to Charlotte Brontë, Che Guevara to Mohandas Gandhi.

Archive event

2-4 August 2024

Anyone who has witnessed the spectacle that is Letters Live at Wilderness can attest that it is one of the finest hours of entertainment you will ever experience. As headliners of the festival’s Talks and Debates programme, they bring their top-secret cast of readers, which has become their calling card, to read some of the greatest correspondence ever written. Wowing audiences since its low-key inception in 2013, Letters Live is inspired by Shaun Usher’s best-selling Letters of Note, and by Simon Garfield’s To the Letter. Its mission has always been the same: to harness the unrivalled power of old-fashioned correspondence and breathe new life into the stories contained within letters with the help of an ever-changing cast of some of the most acclaimed performing talent from around the world. Past Letters Live Wilderness performers have included such luminaries as Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Ben Kingsley. But don't just take our word for it, watch a video from Wilderness 2023 here. Expect absolute greatness.

Other

Terms and conditions for Letters Live x Soho House members competition

Reader

Lisa Dwan is a director, actor and writer, perhaps best known for her performance and adaptations of the work of Samuel Beckett, whose letters she has performed at Letters Live, as well as letters by Anaïs Nin, Amelia Earhart and others.

Archive event

26 February 2018

Letters Live made its US premiere in Los Angeles with a fundraiser for 826LA and Women for Women International at the Theatre at Ace Hotel.

Reader

Louise Brealey is an English actress, writer and journalist. She has appeared on TV in programmes like Sherlock and Back, and has written plays and film criticism, as well as editing a book on the filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Archive event

14 February 2020

Letters Live’s debut event of 2020 was held on Valentine’s Day at Shoreditch Town Hall, London

Reader

Mark Strong is a prolific and renowned actor, who has worked in film, television on stage, memorably in the Kingsman films, Stardust, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Shazam! His first Letters Live appearance was at the Hay Literary Festival in 2016.

Reader

Matt Berry is an actor, comedian, writer and musician, known for The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Toast of London and Things We Do in the Shadows. He is been a frequent presence at Letters Live since his first appearance in 2013.

Other

Terms and conditions for Letters Live x Matt Haig competition