Categories Medea Tributes

Danny Sapani Pays Tribute to Helen McCrory In A New Interview

Partnering with Helen in Medea

By Helenistic | helen-mccrory.com | February 6, 2024

Helen with Danny Sapani in rehearsals for Medea

In a new interview with The Telegraph, British Actor Danny Sapani , who is preparing for his role of King Lear at the Almeida, pays a lovely tribute to Helen. Sapani shared the stage with Helen in Medea at the National Theatre in 2014.

“It’s hard not to think of death even when you’re in your early 50s. When you hit 50, it’s like walking down sniper’s alley. All sorts of health issues come into play. Impending mortality feels present.” And he says that he still mourns the loss of Helen McCrory, at 52, “We knew each other before Medea. We were close, and I think about her a lot doing this. Working with her was a highlight of my career. She was meticulous about every detail and she changed the way I worked.”

You can read Sapani’s interview in its entirety in The Telegraph here.

Categories Damian Lewis Events Personal and Family Life Poetry Readings Tributes Video

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

Poetry Event Dedicated to Helen McCrory

by National Theatre | YouTube | March 3, 2022

Join us to journey through a calendar year in poetry, read by actors on stage at the National Theatre. Allie Esiri and Damian Lewis were joined by friends including Simon Russell Beale, Fay Ripley, Danny Sapani and Lesley Sharp. Chris Riddell live drew the evening. A Poet for Every Day of the Year is dedicated to Helen McCrory, who took part in some of these poetry evenings in previous years.

Signed copies of A Poet for Every Day of the Year are available from the National Theatre Bookshop here. Every purchase supports the work of the National Theatre: https://shop.nationaltheatre.org.uk/p…

This event was performed on the Lyttelton stage, National Theatre, London on Tuesday 25 January 2022.

Continue reading A Poet for Every Day of the Year Video at the National Theatre

Categories Damian Lewis Events Poetry Print Media Tributes

A Joyful Tribute to Helen McCrory by Damian Lewis

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”.

Continue reading A Joyful Tribute to Helen McCrory by Damian Lewis

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

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

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.

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

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

An Ode to Helen McCrory at the National Theatre

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