Letters Live

Benedict Cumberbatch performing in 2017 at a Letters Live event at the Wilderness Festival.

Letters Live is a staged reading show of literary correspondence. It was created and developed in 2013 by independent publishing house Canongate Books in partnership with production company SunnyMarch.^[1] During the shows, actors read interesting, funny, or dramatic letters to the audience.

Letters Live events have taken place in a wide range of venues and locations since its inception. While these events have primarily taken place in the United Kingdom, it has also been performed in other countries, including the United States.

Beginnings

Letters Live initially started as a one-off literacy charity event to promote Canongate Books epistolary texts Letters of Note by Shaun Usher and To the Letter by Simon Garfield in December 2013.^[2] Usher had been compiling letters in an online blog, searching for interesting, funny, or dramatic letters in libraries, museums, and archives.^[3] Jamie Byng of Canongate Books contacted celebrities he knew to get them involved in the event.^[2] Initially intended to be a one-off, the event received very positive feedback from attendees, and Byng decided to host more.^[3]

Format

Letters Live takes the format of a series of readings of letters, typically performed by famous actors. Some actors have a preference for letters they would like to read. The letters are sometimes accompanied by music.^[2] Performers are generally onstage alone, at a lectern, and are usually not known to the audience in advance.^[3][4]

The letters read during events are selected from those catalogued in Usher's book and blog, and have included correspondences including Virginia Woolf's suicide note and a letter sent by Mahatma Gandhi to Adolf Hitler in 1939.^[3]

Events

The first event, in 2013, included performers Benedict Cumberbatch, Gillian Anderson, and Neil Gaiman. The event, in addition to promoting the two Canongate Books publications, raised money for UK charity The Reading Agency.^[5]

Letters Live has also been hosted at the Hay Festival.^[6][7]

In 2016, a Letters Live event took place in the Calais Jungle, where actors including Jude Law and Matt Berry read letters written by refugees.^[2]

During the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom, a digital event was broadcast from the Roundhouse theatre.^[8]

Other performers have included Oscar Isaac,^[9] Russell Brand, Ian McKellen,^[10] Caitlin Moran, Tom Hiddleston,^[4] and Carey Mulligan.^[11] At a 2019 event at the Royal Albert Hall, Rory Stewart read a critical letter by Boris Johnson's former Eton housemaster to announce his resignation from the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom.^[12]

A U.S. version of Letters Live debuted in 2015 in Los Angeles. Performers included Julia Louis-Dreyfus and J. J. Abrams, and the event was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.^[13] Another Los Angeles show was performed in 2018.^[3][14]

Reception

In reviews published in 2016, both The Daily Telegraph and The Independent gave Letters Live 4/5 stars.^[11][15] In The Independent's review, they described the show as "carefully constructed", with the right mix of different kinds of letters being read.^[15] The Daily Telegraph gave a 2022 show 3/5 stars.^[16]

References

1. "About Us". Letters Live.
2. "Jamie Byng: 'Listening to letters being read out is quite something'". the Guardian. 6 March 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
3. "'Letters Live' makes its U.S. public debut at Theatre at Ace Hotel". Los Angeles Times. 24 February 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
4. "Watch Benedict Cumberbatch read a letter from a young Tom Hanks as new Letters Live dates announced". The Independent. 20 July 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
5. "Benedict Cumberbatch and Gillian Anderson do it by the book | Media Monkey". the Guardian. 11 December 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
6. "Benedict Cumberbatch brings romantic letters to life". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
7. "Letters Live at the Hay Festival: 'Letter-writing is not, after all, a dying art'". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
8. "Benedict Cumberbatch reunites with Sherlock co-star for Letters Live digital stream". Radio Times. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
9. "Oscar Isaac surprises audience at Letters Live event in London". the Guardian. 14 March 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
10. "Russell Brand, Benedict Cumberbatch and Gillian Anderson return to Letters Live". the Guardian. 5 February 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
11. Allfree, Claire (18 May 2016). "Letters Live: when Mulligan, Cumberbatch and Law paid tribute to the power of letter-writing". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
12. Walker, Peter (4 October 2019). "Rory Stewart resigns from Conservative party". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 October 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
13. Ritman, Alex (13 May 2015). "Julia Louis-Dreyfus Among Speakers at First U.S. Letters Live Event". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
14. Reed, Sam (16 February 2018). "Jake Gyllenhaal, James Corden, Mark Hamill to Headline Net-a-Porter's "Letters Live" L.A. Event". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
15. "Letters Live, Freemason's Hall, London, review". The Independent. 10 October 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
16. Allfree, Claire (28 October 2022). "Letters Live cherishes the private epistle – so should we really be listening in?". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 22 December 2022.

External links

• Official website