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Allie Curates poetry events all year round. see this page for details of past events, and get your tickets for upcoming poetry extravaganzas
Upcoming events
Past events
"Esiri proves poetry is alive and kicking"
The Telegraph
Allie works with today's best actors for her audiobooks and events
including...
Helena Bonham Carter, Bill Nighy, Harry Enfield, Tom Hiddleston, Emma Watson, Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Gina Bellman, Samuel West, Sophie Turner, Hattie Morahan, Giles Terera, Kate Duchene, Tony Robinson, Ronni Ancona, Alexander Armstrong, Beatie Edney, Hugh Ross, Nathaniel Parker, Alison Steadman, Simon Russell Beale, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Mangan, Kate Fleetwood, Sheila Atim, Indira Varma, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Diana Quick, Paapa Essiedu, Christopher Eccleston....
Upcoming Events
Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year
Take a journey through the year with Shakespeare. Join poetry’s powerhouse Allie Esiri for a delightful and unique celebration of the greatest writer in the English language.
Based on Allie’s latest glorious anthology, Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year, the event will feature readings by actors from Shakespeare’s work, including best-loved classics and less well-known extracts. There will also be insightful introductions and discussion. An unmissable event for anybody who loves Shakespeare, and a superb introduction to his poetry for young people.
Actors to be announced soon
29 March 2020
Oxford Literary Festival
Book Now
Past Events
A Journey Through a Year of Shakespeare (or What You Will)
Take a journey through the year with Shakespeare, and join curator Allie Esiri and acclaimed actors for this illuminating celebration of the greatest writer in the English language. The show will include insights into Shakespeare’s work and times alongside dazzling readings of some of his best-loved – and lesser known – scenes, soliloquies and sonnets.Helena Bonham Carter, Bill Nighy, Harry Enfield, Tom Hiddleston, Emma Watson, Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Gina Bellman, Samuel West, Sophie Turner, Hattie Morahan, Giles Terera, Kate Duchene, Tony Robinson, Ronni Ancona, Alexander Armstrong, Beatie Edney, Hugh Ross, Nathaniel Parker, Alison Steadman, Simon Russell Beale, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Mangan, Kate Fleetwood, Sheila Atim, Indira Varma, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Diana Quick, Paapa Essiedu, Christopher Eccleston
Curated by Allie Esiri, editor of Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year. Diana Quick, whose screen credits include Brideshead Revisited, The Missing, and The Death of Stalin has played Shakespeare’s Cressida at the National Theatre and Gertrude at the RSC. Paapa Essiedu has played Hamlet and Edmund at the RSC. His screen credits include Black Earth Rising, Press and The Miniaturist. Illustrations by Henny Beaumont.
1st December, 2019
Hay festival
Diana Quick and Paapa Essiedu read excerpts from familiar and less familiar plays and sonnets with such powerful expression that applause from the audience grew louder and more frequent, but Allie Esiri, who eloquently introduced each reading, brought the memorable event to a close exactly on time, leaving everyone wanting more.
See Paapa read on Instagram
Voices of london for the Lord Mayor's Appeal
Voices of London was an unique evening featuring poems read by celebrated actors including Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis and vibrant contemporary poets, inspired by our great city of London. Curated by
Helen McCrory (Peaky Blinders), Allie Esiri (Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year) and Kate Birch (Ink Sweat & Tears). Raised money for The Lord Mayor's Appeal
Helen McCrory (Peaky Blinders), Allie Esiri (Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year) and Kate Birch (Ink Sweat & Tears). Raised money for The Lord Mayor's Appeal
26th November, 2019
Mansion House
Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year with Allie Esiri
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 was back with a show based on her latest anthology; Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year. It was 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. Actors who will reading from the anthology will include Simon Russell Beale and Hattie Morahan.
Allie Esiri is the curator of live poetry events at literature festivals including Hay and Cheltenham, and creator of the iF Poems and The Love Book poetry apps.
After the event, Allie Esiri signed copies of Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year. When you buy your copy from the National Theatre Bookshop, you support the work of the NT.
Allie Esiri is the curator of live poetry events at literature festivals including Hay and Cheltenham, and creator of the iF Poems and The Love Book poetry apps.
After the event, Allie Esiri signed copies of Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year. When you buy your copy from the National Theatre Bookshop, you support the work of the NT.
Tickets £9 (£6 concessions)
11th November
National Theatre, London
National Theatre, London
Hamlet’s most famous line was nearly never to be. At a special performance of Allie Esiri’s book Shakespeare For Every Day of the Year at the National Theatre this week — at which Simon Russell Beale trod the boards — the author told the audience that an early quarto of Shakespeare’s read: “To be or not to be, aye, there’s the point.”
Evening Standard Londoner's Diary
Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year with Allie Esiri
A journey through the year with Shakespeare, curated by Allie Esiri and featuring acclaimed actors Christopher Eccleston and Diana Quick. Included insightful introductions and discussions as well as readings from Shakespeare’s dazzling body of work, including best-loved classics and less well-known extracts.
13th October, 2019
Cheltenham Literature Festival
Cheltenham Literature Festival
Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year with Allie Esiri
A journey through the year with Shakespeare, curated by Allie Esiri and featuring acclaimed actors Paapa Essediu Eccleston and Diana Quick. Included insightful introductions and discussions as well as readings from Shakespeare’s dazzling body of work, including best-loved classics and less well-known extracts.
7th September, 2019
FT Weekend Festival
Allie Esiri Presents Women Poets Through the Ages
Allie Esiri and special guest actors, Helena Bonham Carter, Pippa Bennett-Warner and Helen McCrory take us on a journey through the history of women’s writing, from Eneheduanna, the world’s first known poet, via Sappho, to the most powerful, illuminating and entertaining women’s writing of today including Maya Angelou and Carol Ann Duffy. The poems are taken from Allie Esiri’s hugely successful anthologies published by Macmillan – A Poem for Every Day of the Year and A Poem for Every Night of the Year.
28th April, 2019
The Bridge Theatre, London
“Helena Bonham Carter is utterly captivating”.
“Helena Bonham Carter is utterly captivating”.
- Evening Standard
Allie Esiri Presents Women Poets Through the Ages
Allie Esiri and guest actors took us on a highly entertaining and powerful journey through women’s poetry. The evening included poems that mark the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, which first gave some women the right to vote.
The poems were be read by Sheila Atim, Kate Fleetwood, Joanna Lumley, Helen McCrory and Indira Varma.
Chris Riddell (political cartoonist for The Observer, award-winning author and illustrator, and Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2015-2017) illustrated the event live.
16th November, 2018
The National Theatre, London
A Poem for Every Day of the Year
With special guest readers delivering poems from the likes of Wordsworth, Lewis Carroll, Maya Angelou and Emily Dickinson.
30th May, 2018
Bath Literary Festival
A Poem for Every Day of the Year
The poetry curator's latest anthology is a journey through a calendar year, highlighting key moments and dates with a poem for every day, by writers including Wordsworth, Lewis Carroll, Maya Angelou and Emily Dickinson. Allie joined a host of actors including Tobias Menzies (The History Boys, Game of Thrones, starring as Prince Philip in The Crown season three and four), Ophelia Lovibond, Tony Robinson, Toby Jones and Gina Bellman (star of Coupling, currently streaming to a new generation of fans on Netflix, and Ophelia in Peter Hall’s Hamlet opposite Stephen Dillane) in a highly entertaining hour as they performed their favourite poems from the book, a humorous journey through history and human experience.
3rd June, 2018
The Hay Festival
See the event on Hay Player
A Poem for Every Day of the Year
Following the success of A Poem for Every Night of the Year (Independent Bookshop Week Award 2017) Allie Esiri’s anthology, A Poem for Every Day of the Year is a journey through a calendar year, highlighting key moments and dates with a poem for every day, by writers such as Keats, W H Auden, Maya Angelou and Kate Tempest. An inspiring evening of readings of some of the magical and humorous poems in this journey through history and human experience. Read by actors including Adjoa Andoh, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Mangan, Helen McCrory, Simon Russell Beale and Samuel West.
Chris Riddell (political cartoonist for The Observer, award-winning author and illustrator, and Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2015-2017) illustrated the event live.
10th November, 2017
The National Theatre, London
“Joanna Lumley makes an Excellent walrus”.
“Joanna Lumley makes an Excellent walrus”.
- Telegraph
Live illustrations by chris Riddell
The Poetry of War
Featuring Anton Lester and Tracy-Ann Oberman reading war poems from A Poem For Every Day of the Year.
15th October, 2017
Cliveden Literary Festival
The Poetry of War
Featuring Alison Steadman and Harry Enfield reading war poems from A Poem For Every Day of the Year. lllustrated live by Charlie Mackesy.
6th October, 2017
Cheltenham Literary Festival
The Poetry of War
Featuring Tamsin Greig and Sanjeev Bhaskar OBE reading war poems from A Poem For Every Day of the Year.
Watch the full event (free)
2nd September, 2017
FT Weekend Festival
A Poem for Every Night of the Year
A sizzling reading of some of the joyous, magical and humorous poems from her anthology. In a dazzling display of poetry, the show journeys through a calendar year, with poems celebrating events such as Martin Luther King Day and the first day of Spring before ending with Michael Rosen’s The Car Trip.
Sir Tony Robinson and Beatie Edney of Poldark will be performing alongside Allie Esiri.
Chris Riddell will be live drawing the event. Tony Robinson and Beatie Edney will be performing poems.
Sir Tony Robinson and Beatie Edney of Poldark will be performing alongside Allie Esiri.
Chris Riddell will be live drawing the event. Tony Robinson and Beatie Edney will be performing poems.
29th May, 2017
The Hay Festival
See the event on Hay Player
A Poem for Every Night of the Year
Allie Esiri’s anthology is a journey through a calendar year, highlighting key moments and dates with a poem for every night, by writers such as Maya Angelou, Robert Burns and Benjamin Zephaniah.
A fabulous evening of readings of some of the joyous, magical, dramatic and humorous poems in this journey through history and human experience.
With guest readers Kate Duchêne, Hattie Morahan, Giles Terera and Samuel West
25th November, 2016
The National Theatre, London
download the podcast from Apple
Poems over the tanoy at Covent Garden Tube Station
Recording of Helena Bonham Carter reading Christina Rossetti's Song was played over the tanoy at Covent Garden Tube Station, from The Love Book App to mark National Poetry Day
2 october, 2014
Covent Garden Tube Station
Allie Esiri’s Poetry Corner presented poetry’s top twenty greatest hits – the fun and funny family event at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. Acclaimed theatre and TV actors Nathaniel Parker (The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Wolf Hall), Sophie Turner and Gina Bellman performed poetry’s greatest hits, from A. A. Milne to Spike Milligan to Roger McGough.
Allie Esiri’s Poetry Corner
October 21, 2014
Cheltenham Literature Festival
Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory Read Great Love Poems
Launching The Love Book, with guest readers Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis
2014
Cheltenham Literature Festival
