In 1995 I left at the reception desk of the West Yorkshire Playhouse a copy of our son Nat’s poems, The Mountain Man, collected by my husband on Nat’s death at 20 in 1992, in the hope that Alan Rickman (Obituary, 15 January) would make time to read the accompanying letter. In it I shared with him how much we had both been moved on attending a preview of his stage production of The Winter Guest the evening before. As I was due to take a party of pupils to a parallel production at the Playhouse the next afternoon, I had the opportunity to leave the package.
We had just attended the funeral of an elderly but much-loved relative and were still grieving for our son’s suicide: the themes of love, loss and alienation in the play spoke to us very directly, while the humorous undertow gave us a fillip that helped us rally. Within 48 hours I got a letter in reply that I still treasure explaining that the young members of the cast had greatly appreciated the poems which they had used for improvisations in rehearsal the next day. I will for ever be in Alan Rickman’s debt.
Morry Smith
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
• I’ve been dining out for years on my joy at standing opposite Alan Rickman in the bar at the Almeida theatre, during the interval of The Iceman Cometh, with Kevin Spacey in the lead role. Now I read that I missed his beautiful voice delivering his order for a glass of red (When Alan Rickman was a star at the bar, Letters, 16 January). I was in the loo. Such is life. However, I am eternally grateful to my husband for positioning us opposite him, as we too sipped our wine. A memory I cherish.
Sue Grainger
Balerno, Midlothian
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