Past event

The Tabernacle, 2013

Date:
10 December 2013

Launching on 10th December 2013 at the Tabernacle in London, Letters Live welcomed high-profile performers on stage to share ‘correspondence deserving of a wider audience’. Readers included Gillian Anderson, Matt Berry, Nick Cave, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kerry Fox, Neil Gaiman, James Rhodes, Bruce Robinson, Colin Salmon, Peter Serafinowicz and Juliet Stevenson.

 

Inspired by Canongate’s recent publication of Simon Garfield’s To the Letter and Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note (co-published in partnership with Unbound), Letters Live placed both these authors and their books at the heart of these events. Live readings, images and music also played a crucial part in making these performances truly dynamic and memorable. The evening ended with an auction to raise funds for The Reading Agency.

 

Letters read included those from Beethoven, Charles Bukowski, Nick Cave, Chris Barker and Bessie Moore, Charles Dickens, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Pirosh, Jack the Ripper, Alan Turing, Kurt Vonnegut and Virginia Woolf.

Programme

Tuesday, 10th December 2013

 

Benedict Cumberbatch

Yours in distress, Alan

Alan Turing to Norman Routledge

 

 

Benedict Cumberbatch and Kerry Fox

 

Chris and Bessie

 

 

Bruce Robinson

I Stand Astounded & Appalled

Charles Dickens to The Times

I Like Words

Robert Pirosh to Various

 

 

Colin Salmon

In event of moon disaster

William Safire to H.R. Haldeman

To My Old Master

Jourdon Anderson to Patrick Henry Anderson

 

 

DBC Pierre

May we all get better together

Charles Bukowski to Hans van den Broek

 

 

Gillian Anderson

What did you say? I can’t hear you…

Katharine Hepburn to Spencer Tracy

I have not shot her yet

Dorothy Parket to Seward Collins

 

 

James Rhodes

The Heiligenstadt Testament

Beethoven to Carl and Johann Beethoven

 

 

Lisa Dwan

How could you go ahead of me?

A Widow to Eung-Tae Lee

 

 

Louis Howell

 

Louis Howell to The Reading Agency

 

 

Matt Berry

From Hell

Jack the Ripper to George Lusk

 

 

Neil Gaiman

Slaughter house-five

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. to Kurt Vonnegut

 

 

Nick Cave

My muse is not a horse

Nick Cave to MTV

 

 

Peter Serafinowicz

My real name is David Jones

David Bowie to Sandra Dodd

 

 

Music

 

James Rhodes

Beethoven Sonata No 15 in D ‘Pastoral’

 

Nick Cave

Love Letter