Tag: Allie Esiri

Categories Damian Lewis Events Poetry Print Media Tributes

A Joyful Tribute to Helen McCrory by Damian Lewis

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A Poet for Every Day of the Year at the National Theatre

Quentin Letts | The Sunday Times | January 30, 2022
Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis in 2015
Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis in 2015 MIKE MARSLAND/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES

A Poet for Every Day of the Year
Lyttelton, National Theatre, London SE1
★★★★☆

Helen McCrory’s voice had not crackled across the Lyttelton stage since her 2016 performance in The Deep Blue Sea, but it was heard again on Tuesday when a poetry reading in her memory closed with grainy footage of her at a similar event some years back. That McCrory voice, rich as brandied cake, delivered Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese. Amid despair “the world goes on” and clear pebbles of rain continue to drift across prairies while wild geese, high above, “are heading home again”.

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Categories Damian Lewis Events Poetry Print Media Readings Tributes

A Poet for Every Day of the Year at the National Theatre – Helen McCrory remembered in powerful evening

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A variety of readers took the stage to mark the new anthology

by Sarah Crompton | What’s on Stage | January 26, 2022

A Poet for Every Day of the Year
A Poet for Every Day of the Year © Urszula Soltys

There’s something about poetry. Spending an hour listening to a company of fine actors reading verse aloud is like simultaneously being offered a hug and a cold shower of clarity in one all-embracing package. It feels comforting and stimulating at the same time.

When the event is dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory, who had performed at similar events over the years, there’s an additional patina of melancholy, but also of pertinence. She thought poetry mattered and supported Allie Esiri’s passionate determination to make it a part of our daily lives. We would do well to listen.

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Categories Damian Lewis Events Poetry Print Media Reviews Tributes

A Poet for Every Day of the Year review: Ode to Helen McCrory cuts to the heart of the matter

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An Ode to Helen McCrory at the National Theatre

by Dominic Maxwell | The Times | January 26, 2022
Damian Lewis paid fitting tribute to his late wife
Damian Lewis paid fitting tribute to his late wife URSZULA SOLTYS

★★★★☆

How would Damian Lewis, making his first stage appearance since the death of his wife Helen McCrory last April, begin an occasion dedicated to her memory? With a no-nonsense nod to the mixture of happiness and sadness of being at an occasional poetry reading event that she had taken part in previously herself? With a poem in her honour, performed to a well-scrubbed crowd (including McCrory’s friend Helena Bonham Carter) who had turned out to see him and Sir Simon Russell Beale, Fay Ripley, Danny Sapani and Lesley Sharp reading from the latest anthology of 366 poems edited by the evening’s organiser and host, Allie Esiri?

Continue reading A Poet for Every Day of the Year review: Ode to Helen McCrory cuts to the heart of the matter

Categories Damian Lewis Events Poetry Readings Tributes

DAMIAN LEWIS READS FROM ‘A POET FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR’ IN HONOR OF HELEN MCCRORY

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A Poetry Reading  Dedicated to Helen

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | January 25, 2022
‘There will be dying, but there is no need to go into that…The sun rises in spite of everything…Everything is going to be all right.’ – Derek Mahon

On Tuesday, January 25, 2022 guests gathered for a live poetry reading dedicated to the late, great Helen McCrory.  Allie Esiri, author of her latest installment A Poet for Every Day of the Year, curated the night’s event at the Lyttelton venue of National Theatre in London. From 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. a variety of readers took to the stage to read verse from the new anthology, including Damian Lewis, Lesley Sharp, Fay Ripley, Simon Russell Beale and Danny Sapani with 900+ audience members in attendance, together with Damian and Helen’s children Manon and Gulliver and family friend Helena Bonham Carter.

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Categories Damian Lewis Events Poetry Readings Tributes

A Poet for Every Day of the Year at the National Theatre

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A Poetry Reading Dedicated to Helen

National Theatre | January 16, 2022

Damian, Allie and Helen at A Poem for Every Day of the Year at the National Theatre in November 2017. Allie organized the event and Helen was one of the actresses reciting poems.

Following the success of previous poetry reading evenings at the National Theatre, Allie Esiri is back on January 25, 2022 for a fifth year with a show based on her latest anthology; A Poet for Every Day of the Year. We will journey through a calendar year, highlighting key moments and dates with poetry from some of the world’s greatest verse writers, read by some of our leading actors. This event is dedicated to Helen McCrory, who took part in some of these poetry evenings in previous years. Allie Esiri and Damian Lewis will be joined onstage by friends including Simon Russell Beale, Fay Ripley and Lesley Sharp.

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