Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words and Music

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.

Two of our best-loved actors, Anton Lesser (Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall, Endeavour) and Charlie Hamblett (Killing Eve, Ghosts, The Burning Girls) 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.

Orchestra of the Swan’s music echoes Lee’s lyrical writing, from Gloucestershire to Spain, via Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Holst, Britten, Albéniz, Turina and De Falla.