Past event
Date:
31 March - 4 April 2015
Letters Live presented its first season of shows in 2015 at the iconic Freemasons’ Hall, one of the finest Art Deco buildings in Britain, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Louise Brealey in starring roles.
Cumberbatch and Brealey took to the stage for each of the nights, reading letters alongside a diverse array of world class performers including luminaries from the stage, screen, music, art and literary worlds.
(Click dates to expand/collapse)
My Muse is not a horse
Nick Cave to MTV
I embrace you with all my heart
Albert Camus to Louis Germain
Chris and Bessie
Shine, constantly and steadily
Caitlin Moran to Her Daughter
The Matchbox
Sylia Townsend Warner to Alyse Gregory
What did you say? I can’t hear you…
Katharine Hepburn to Spencer Tracey
With great respect, Marge
Marge Simpson to Barbara Bush
I see no beauty in Lopsided true love
Elizabeth Smart to George Barker
Along with this letter comes a play
Shelagh Delaney to Joan Littlewood
Cat Fancy
Ayn Rand to Cat Fancy Magazine
P.S This is my favorite memo ever
Matt Stone to MPAA
Torturing the Saxofone
Robert Crumb to Mats Gustafsson
I am desperate to have some real fun
Peter Sellers to Spike Milligan
Whom thou forevermore dost join in one
Helen Bellany to John Bellany
I hope you don’t feel too disappointed
Eric Idle to John Major
Our Frank
The Connell Family to The Ciulla Family
Grow up as good revolutionaries
Che Guevara to His Children
Make your soul grow
Kurt Vonnegut to Xavier High School
Like a tree in full bearing
Charlotte Bronte to W.S Williams
Is this for eternity?
Vincent Van Gogh to Theo Van Gogh
I love my wife. My wife is dead
Richard Feynman to Arline Feynman
I would like to give you your own history
Juan Gelman to his Grandchildren
Dialogue
Love Letter
I’m going to sit right down and write myself a letter
I fear the Winter
The Dog’s Politics
Thou Eunuch of language
Robert Burns to a Critic
I loved the boy
William Wodsworth to Robert Southey
I am the dead one
Spike Milligan to George Harrison
DO
Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse
DO NOT be so bloody vulnerable
Noel Coward to Marlene Dietrich
My real name is David Jones
David Bowie to Sandra Dodd
Chris and Bessie
To My Old Master
Jourdon Anderson to P.H. Anderson
You’re off, by God!
Richard Burton to Liz Taylor
Your type is a dime a dozen
Hunter S Thompson to Anthony Burgess
Sir Sydney Smith
A squeal of pain
Vita Sacksville-West to Virginia Woolf
We are all minnows in life together
Martha Gelhorn to Diana Cooper
Letter to Mama
Michael Tolliver to His Mother
Make your soul grow
Kurt Vonnegut to Xavier High School
Letter to His Wife
Gentlemen, I just don’t belong here
Ursula Le Guin to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Like a tree in full bearing
Charlotte Bronte to W.S Williams
Dear Friends all
Henry James to 270 friends
For the sake of Humanity
Gandhi to Hitler
I am awfully comfortable
The Kipling family
America’s Youngest Ambassador
Samantha Smith to Yuri Andropov
Your eager mother
Jessie Bernard to Unborn Daughter
Ought Women to be Abolished
Clementine Churchill
The Letter
Call You Home
Closing
Dialogue
I am very real
Kurt Vonnegut
A string of veritable psychological peaches
Carl Jung to James Joyce
Torturing the Saxophone
Robert Crumb to Mats Gustafsson
It is a stunning script
Michael Powell to Martin Scorsese
With many good wishes for our house
Lion Feuchtwanger to The occupant of his house
Chris and Bessie
In Event Of Moon Disaster
Bill Safire to H. R. Haldeman
Nothing good gets away
John Steinbeck to His Son
Dear One
Rachel Carson to Dorothy Freeman
This is quite true
Evelyn Waugh to Laura Waugh
Final, complete and irremediable defeat
Hugh Dowding to Winston Churchill
Arkell vs Pressdam
Private Eye Magazine to Goodman Derrick & Co.
Zelda Fitzgerald to F. Scott Fitzgerald
Letter to Mr. Edison
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Beatrix Potter to Noel Moore
Like a tree in full bearing
Charlotte Bronte to W.S Williams
Chinese Form letter for Drunkenness
Don’t touch his hair
Three Elvis fans to US President Eisenhower
Dear Internet
Tina Fey to Internet Commenters
You are not so kind as you used to be
Clementine Churchill
Every writer has his own voice
V.S. Naipaul to Sonny Mehta
Oh Christ the cook is dead
Spike Milligan to Stephen
An idiot of the 33rd degree
Mark Twain to A Salesman
Sorrow passes and we remain
Henry James to Grace Norton
Dialogue
The Letter
Love Letter
I’m going to sit right down and write myself a letter
Hang on my love
Iggy Pop to Laurence
Husband until death
Abream Scriven to His Wife
It was supposed to be me
Basil Rathbone to His Father
Kurt Cobain
I like words
Robert Pirosh’s to Various
Chris and Bessie
Don’t touch his hair
Three Elvis Fans to US President Eisenhower
Janis Joplin Lives!
Janis Joplin to Her Parents
My good friend Roosevelt
Fidel Castro to Franklin Roosevelt
We press you close and kiss you with all our strength
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to Their Sons
With great respect, Marge
Marge Simpson to Barbara Bush
You are a homosexual and may never change
Felicia Bernstein to Leonard Bernstein
Zelda Fitzgerald to F. Scott Fitzgerald
My Muse is not a horse
Nick Cave to MTV
The Gales of Grief
Samuel Beckett to Barbara Bray
An instrument of joy
Margaret Mead to Her Sister
I do not like scolding people
Katherine Mansfield to Princess Bibesco
All the ladies like whiskers
Grace Bedell & Abraham Lincoln
Federal Agent at Large
Elvis Presley to US President Richard Nixon
May we all get better together
Charles Bukowski to Hans Van Den Broek
Like a mighty river
Ted Hughes
Books are people
EB White to Children of Troy letter
All this I did without you
Gerald Durrell to Lee McGeorge
A glowing recommendation
Marlon Brando to Michael Mann
Dialogue
The Letter
Love Letter
I’m going to sit right down and write myself a letter
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