Tag: National Theatre

Categories Charity Helen Personal and Family Life Philanthropy Print Media Tributes

Thousands Raised in Memory of ‘Inspiring’ Brother and His Aunt, Helen McCrory

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Riding all the Way from London to Madrid  for Hugo and Helen

by Lily Ford | Evening Standard | July 21, 2022

An Army officer has raised thousands of pounds for charity by cycling 2,100 kilometres from London to Madrid in memory of his “inspiring” brother and his aunt, actress Helen McCrory. Tom Yaxley, 32, is the brother of Hugo Yaxley and nephew of Damian, as well as McCrory, who died from cancer in April 2021 aged 52.

Mr. Yaxley has embarked on the cycle across Europe for Ride4Hugo, a series of fundraising events organised by friends and family which have earned more than £115,000 for four charities. Through tough gruelling climbs, injury, pain, heat, traffic and SHEEP! Nothing stopped him.

Add to their Collection Pot here
View photos of the bike challenge in our Gallery here

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Categories Appearances Damian Lewis Events Helen Personal and Family Life Poetry Readings Video

A Poet for Every Day of the Year Live Broadcast

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National Theatre Talks

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

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Categories Appearances Damian Lewis Events Helen Personal and Family Life Poetry Readings

A Poet for Every Day of the Year Review

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Ode to Helen McCrory Cuts to the Heart of the Matter

by Dominic Maxwell | The Times | January 26, 2022

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.

In the end, no. Lewis found a way to address the elephant in the room that was both unexpected and oddly fitting to such a charming, varied and resonant evening. He told a story about John Dennis, the 18th-century critic and dramatist who, it turned out, had inadvertently invented the expression “steal my thunder”. “One person whose thunder absolutely would not be stolen was Helen McCrory,” Lewis added, in the building where his late wife had successes in Medea and The Deep Blue Sea. “You could try, but it wouldn’t work.”

That done, he started off the evening of 30 poems with Robert Burns’s Address to a Haggis, his Scottish vowels enabled, he said, by a “little tutorial” from his father-in-law the previous night “after a couple of gins”. Not everything that followed had such a memorable accent to propel it, but almost everything here was pithy and impassioned.

Russell Beale gave his all, yet kept his usual sense of ease, to WH Auden’s O Tell Me The Truth About Love. Sharp was as good imitating Dorothy Parker’s cynical drawl for One Perfect Rose as she was joined by Ripley for a twin delivery of Tennyson’s The Charge of The Light Brigade. Although there were a few more greatest hits of poetry like that, more recent and less-known pieces made as much of an impression. Sapani’s reading of Two Guns in the Sky for Daniel Harris made one want to hear more from its author, Raymond Antrobus.

There was a moving finale when footage of McCrory performing at the event, in 2017, was shown as the final poem. It was a tremendous reminder that poetry cuts to the heart of things as much as it dances round their edge.

Read the rest of the original article at The Times

Categories Appearances Damian Lewis Events Gallery Helen Personal and Family Life Poetry Readings

Damian Lewis Reads From ‘A Poet for Every Day of the Year’ In Honor of Helen McCrory

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A Poetry Dedication to Commemorate Helen McCrory

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | January 25, 2022

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.

Damian introduced the evening as he shared an anecdote about the origins of the expression ‘stealing somebody’s thunder,’ which apparently comes from the failed playwright John Dennis in 1709. Damian remarked that nobody could steal Helen’s thunder on stage:

“This evening is dedicated to her and it’s perfect, because Helen loved the National Theatre. One person whose thunder would absolutely not be stolen was Helen McCrory.”

Helen thought poetry mattered and supported Allie Esiri’s passionate determination to make it a part of our daily lives. Curator and Author Allie Esiri said,

“We dedicated the evening to Helen and Damian said a few words, but we just wanted to get on and do the show. It’s what she would have told us to do – OK, enough already, get on with the show!”

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Categories Appearances Damian Lewis Events Helen Personal and Family Life Poetry Readings

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

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A Poetry Reading Dedicated to Helen

by Staff | National Theatre | January 16, 2022

Damian, Allie and Helen at A Poem for Every Day of the Year at the National Theatre in November 2018. Allie organized the event and Helen was one of the readers.

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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Categories Appearances Audio Books Events Helen Poetry Readings

Damian and Helen to Lead Shakespeare Reading – Sept 16, 2019

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Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | September 16, 2019

We are delighted to announce that Damian and Helen will be joining Allie Esiri’s new compilation Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year‘s recorded audio book.

At this time, we are unsure if the couple will make an appearance to perform any live readings at upcoming events, but we will keep you informed as information is made available.

Two possible events remain this year: October 12 at Cheltenham Literature Festival and November 11 at National Theatre, London. For more information and tickets about Cheltenham, click here and for National Theatre, click here.

About the event: For the fourth year running, and following the success of A Poem for Every Night of the Year, A Poem for Every Day of the Year and Women Poets Through the Ages, Allie Esiri is back with a show based on her latest anthology; Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year.

It is a journey through a calendar year, highlighting key moments and dates with a sonnet, speech or scene taken from across all of Shakespeare’s works.

According to Pan Macmillan Publishers website, Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year will be published on September 19, 2019, along with an audio book. Fans can purchase the audio book to hear the couple recite one of Shakespeare’s works!

Here is Damian reading an extract from Macbeth:

Continue reading Damian and Helen to Lead Shakespeare Reading – Sept 16, 2019

Categories Helen Personal and Family Life Poetry Print Media Theatre

A Poem for Every Day of the Year – Nov 11, 2017

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A Poem for Every Day of the Year

by Tristram Fane Saunders – The Telegraph – November 11, 2017

Our fave actor was present at the November 10 reading of Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and the Carpenter as part of the unusually glitzy Olivier Theatre audience at the National Theatre launch of well-connected editor Allie Esiri’s new anthology A Poem for Every Day of the Year.

The book is aimed squarely at young readers, but last night’s crowd seemed to contain fewer children than celebrities. Each arrival prompted a chorus of whispers.

Oh look, there’s Damian Lewis! Is that Esiri’s old chum Helena Bonham-Carter? Oh dear, it’s David Cameron.

Afterparty Sam West, Stephen Mangan and Damian Lewis. Source: Twitter @AllieEsiri

And it seems another Helen was the reason Damian made an appearance at the event. Helen McCrory and Howards End star Samuel West kept things sharp and understated to great effect.

Afterparty Damian Lewis, Allie Esiri and Helen McCrory. Source: Twitter @AllieEsiri

An inspiring evening of readings of some of the magical and humorous poems in this journey through history and human experience were read by actors Adjoa Andoh, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Mangan, Helen McCrory, Simon Russell Beale and Samuel West. Here is Refugee Blues:

Read the rest of the original article at The Telegraph

Categories Events Print Media Theatre

Damian Attends ‘People, Places & Things’ Post-Curtain Dinner Event – Oct 24, 2017

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Damian Attends ‘People, Places & Things’ Post-Curtain Dinner Event

by Maria Ward | Vogue | October 24, 2017

People, Places & Things Post-Curtain Dinner Event. Source: Vogue – photo by Krista Schlueter

On Monday night, the toast of Broadway traveled to Brooklyn for the American premiere of Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places & Things staged at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY.

Following sold-out productions at London’s National Theatre and then on the West End, Denise Gough has reprised her Olivier Award–winning role as Emma alongside much of the original cast.

All were on hand at the elegant post-curtain dinner, hosted by Vogue’s Anna Wintour. There, underneath the theater-style lights in the auditorium, Damian Lewis warmed up the room with a little-known anecdote from when he first began dating now-wife Helen McCrory in 2005. At the time, McCrory was playing the part of Rosalind in the West End production of As You Like It. Lewis recounted a conversation he had with McCrory: “She said, ‘If there’s any justice in this world, the girl who is understudying me is going to be a fucking star,’” Lewis recalled. “‘She’s brilliant.’” As fate would have it, the understudy was Gough.

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Categories Media Personal and Family Life Print Media

Vogue Archive: No Place Like Homeland – Jan 20, 2015

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Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory British Vogue Interview

by Staff | British Vogue | January 20, 2015

“Do you know, I think you might wear a suit better than any man I’ve ever met.” In the intimate and strangely forbidden confines of a lift at the National Theatre, Helen McCrory’s heavily made-up hazel eyes are drinking in her husband’s tall, tailored frame.

“Thank you,” he replies, faintly awkwardly, looking down at the same Tom Ford tuxedo he wore to accept the best actor Emmy award only last month. “Does this mean you want me to do all the washing-up for a week?”

A gypsy laugh bubbles up from deep inside McCrory’s tiny dancer’s body.

“No, my darling, of course not! Just the bedtime stories…”

It’s a rare day of togetherness and, despite a stoic, unwaveringly professional determination to get the photographs absolutely right – freezing winter winds notwithstanding – Mr and Mrs Damian Lewis are enjoying every minute of this short holiday from work and the parenting of their two children, Manon, six, and Gulliver, five. Curling herself into her husband, McCrory locks eyes with him as he puts a protective hand between her shoulder blades and gently rubs her slender back. They seem in a little world of their own on the top of Waterloo Bridge, talking quietly and constantly to each other, oblivious to both the photographer’s lens and the gawping Londoners who keep falling into the traffic in their astonishment at getting a real-life Homeland fix in the middle of the week.

When one frazzled woman with a pushchair stops dead in her tracks between the couple and the camera and stares, open-mouthed, at the nation’s favourite redhead as if he were a painting, they laugh tolerantly until she manages to pull herself together. This, after all, is their reality. And, for a couple who were recently invited to a state dinner for David Cameron at the White House and were sat not, as they had suspected, somewhere “between the kitchens and the loo” but on President Obama’s table, nothing is terribly surprising. “He did, yes. Yes, he did. He did say it was his favourite programme,” Lewis later admits, between hungry mouthfuls of chicken stew and gulps of red wine in a nearby South Bank brasserie.

Continue reading Vogue Archive: No Place Like Homeland – Jan 20, 2015