RED SKY AT SUNRISE To Play Southbank Centre

Anton Lesser (Wolf Hall, Andor, Endeavour, Game of Thrones) and Charlie Hamblett (Killing Eve, SAS Rogue Heroes, Missing You) will star in Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words and Music at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre.

Performed alongside Orchestra of the Swan under the artistic direction of David Le Page, the acclaimed words-and-music production traces Laurie Lee's extraordinary journey from the Gloucestershire of Cider with Rosie to the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War, where he fought with the International Brigades.

Adapted by Deirdre Shields and devised by Judy Reaves, Red Sky at Sunrise draws on Lee's celebrated autobiographical trilogy: Cider with Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War. Combining spoken word with live music by Britten, Elgar, Holst, Albéniz, Falla and Turina, the production celebrates both Lee's humour and his darker experiences during one of the defining conflicts of the twentieth century.

The performance takes place on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and forms part of Southbank Centre's celebrations marking 75 years since the Festival of Britain. Laurie Lee himself had close ties to the Southbank, serving as curator of the Festival of Britain's Pavilion of Eccentrics in 1951.

Southbank is also home to the UK's national memorial to the International Brigades, commemorating the 2,500 volunteers from Britain and Ireland who travelled to Spain to fight fascism, among them Laurie Lee.

Speaking about the production, Anton Lesser said: "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!"

Red Sky at Sunrise has previously sold out at venues including the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Oxford Playhouse and Wilton's Music Hall, London.

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