ANTON LESSER AND CHARLIE HAMBLETT TO APPEAR IN RED SKY AT SUNRISE: LAURIE LEE IN WORDS AND MUSIC
AT RICHMOND THEATRE SUN 19 MAY 2024
Two of our best-loved actors, Anton Lesser (Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall, Endeavour) and Charlie Hamblett (Killing Eve, Ghosts, The Burning Girl) will appear in a celebration of Laurie Lee’s extraordinary story, told in a captivating weave of music and his own words.
RED SKY AT SUNRISE follows Laurie Lee through his much-loved trilogy, Cider with Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, and A Moment of War, when Lee famously walked out of the Slad valley one midsummer morning, and ended up fighting with the International Brigades against Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War.
Lesser and Hemblett play the role of Laurie Lee older and younger, along with a rich array of other characters. Together, they celebrate Lee’s engaging humour, as well as his darker side, in a performance that has startling resonance with modern events.
Devised as a show by Judy Reaves (who also produces), the text by Laurie Lee has been adapted by Deirdre Shields. David Le Page has devised a gorgeous musical programme performed by Orchestra of the Swan, that weaves around Lee’s writing, from the lush Gloucestershire countryside Lee made famous in Cider With Rosie, to the dry landscapes of Spain, via the music of Vaughan Williams, Walton, Holst, Elgar, Britten, Grainger, Albeniz, Turina and De Falla. Featuring guitarist Mark Ashford performing Asturias, Sevilla and Spanish Romance.
Anton Lesser says: ‘It has been a joy to discover more of Laurie Lee’s sublime writing. In many ways, his account of what was happening in Spain in the 1930s is prescient of what is playing out now in Europe.
There is a heartbreaking moment when Lee writes: ‘Did we know, as we stood there, our clenched fists raised high, and scarcely a gun between three of us, that we had ranged against us the rising military power of Europe, and the deadly cynicism of Russia? No, we didn’t. We had yet to learn that sheer idealism never stopped a tank.’
Red Sky at Sunrise is a homegrown affair. Not only does it celebrate Gloucestershire-born Laurie Lee, Anton Lesser and Charlie Hamblett have deep roots in Warwickshire, and the Orchestra of The Swan are one of the Midlands’ top chamber orchestras. The show was devised by Stratford-based Judy Reaves, Producer with Hambletts, and adapted by local writer, Deirdre Shields.