Details

Hear fifty of the greatest international love poems from the last 50 years. In this unprecedented event, the Royal Festival Hall stage will be filled with a cast of 50 leading actors and poets from across the globe to form an orchestra of readers, each reading one of the greatest love poems from the last 50 years. Poems have been selected from 30 countries around the world, from Saint Lucia to Iraqi Kurdistan and there will be readings in Arabic, Turkish, Macedonian and Tamil, with English translations. Poems will include Celia, Celia read by the subject of the poem, Adrian Mitchell's second wife Celia Hewitt, and The Present, read by Michael Donaghy's widow Maddy Paxman.

Cast/Performers

Harriet Walter, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Ray Fearon, Don Paterson, Alice Orr-Ewing, Guy Paul, Imtiaz Dharker, Hubert Burton, Sasha Dugdale, Rachel Shelly, Sujata Bhatt, Emily Bruni, Patsy Ferran, Nikola Madzirov, Siobhan Redmond, Warsan Shire, Chipo Chung, Noma Dumezweni, Amjad Nasser, Claire Rafferty, Sabrina Mahfouz, Neet Mohan, Kutti Revathi, Sudha Bhuchar, Katharine Kilalea, Daniel Weyman, Ashjan Al Hendi, Jessica Murrain, Chris McCabe, Branka Kati?, Tom Wentworth, Katherine Kingsley, Philip Cowell