Red Sky at Sunrise - Laurie Lee in Words and Music
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- 3 min read
Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words and Music at Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7FD, Tuesday 19 May 2026 at 7.30pm. Actors Anton Lesser, Charlie Hamblett with Orchestra of the Swan. Director Judy Reaves. Music Director David Le Page. Writer Deirdre Shields.
Producer Hambletts.
Preview
Author, Laurie Lee’s extraordinary story - from Cider with Rosie to the Spanish Civil War - told in a captivating weave of music, and his own words at Warwick Arts Centre on 19 May, 2026.
Red Sky at Sunrise follows Laurie Lee through his much-loved autobiographical trilogy: Cider with Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, and A Moment of War, when Lee famously walked out of Gloucestershire’s Slad Valley one morning in 1934, and ended up fighting with the International Brigades against Franco’s Nazi-supported forces in the Spanish Civil War.
Two of our best-loved actors, Anton Lesser (Andor, Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall, Endeavour) and Charlie Hamblett (Killing Eve, SAS Rogue Heroes, Missing You) 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, in this 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the tumultuous Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939).
Devised as a show by Judy Reaves, Laurie Lee’s trilogy 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 Falla. Featuring a Spanish guitarist, performing Asturias, Sevilla and Spanish Romance.
Anton Lesser says: “Words and Music is a kind of unique genre, neither pure reading, nor acting, but with an immediacy that comes from the huge emotional impact the music has upon the words, and vice versa, and the interplay we as actors enjoy with the musicians on-stage. Quite simply, it’s the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done!”
“What an incredible evening! Thank you for the most magical, moving and exquisite performance. I can’t begin to tell you what a relief it is to have such an entertaining and sensitive tribute to my father’s work” - Jessy Lee (Laurie Lee's daughter)
Red Sky at Sunrise has previously enjoyed sold-out visits to the RSC’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, and a run at Wilton’s, London among other venues.
Local connections - Red Sky was born out of Coventry and Warwickshire - Producer, Judy Reaves and writer, Deirdre Shields both have family roots in Coventry. (Their mothers attended Stoke Park School; Judy attended Bablake School, and Belgrade Youth Theatre). Anton Lesser was born and raised in Birmingham. (Last December, he unveiled a blue plaque to Charles Dickens at Birmingham Town Hall, ahead of his performance of A Christmas Carol). He still lives in Warwickshire.
Charlie Hamblett attended Warwick School and cut his acting teeth at school, Playbox Theatre and the RSC. Orchestra of the Swan is based in Warwick. Hambletts is very proud to be a homegrown Midlands production company. The University of Warwick’s Modern Records Centre has one of the UK’s largest archival collections relating to the Spanish Civil War - a treasure trove commemorating the 2,500 men and women who went to Spain, including a large contingent from the Midlands.
Tickets £36 each from warwickartscentre.co.uk
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