Actors Anton Lesser (Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall, Endeavour) and Charlie Hamblett (Killing Eve, Ghosts, The Burning Girls) played the role of Laurie Lee older and younger, at a performance of Red Sky at Sunrise at Painswick Rococo Garden on Saturday evening.
Together with musicians from The Orchestra of the Swan, they celebrated the poet and novelist’s engaging humour as well as his darker side in a performance that has startling resonance with modern events. Laurie Lee’s daughter, Jessy was amongst the audience for the evening performance.
Devised as a show by Judy Reaves, the text by Laurie Lee had been adapted by Deirdre Shields. The Orchestra of the Swan’s Artistic Director David Le Page devised a musical programme that weaves around Lee’s writing, from the lush Gloucestershire countryside to the dry landscapes of Spain via the music of Vaughan Williams, Walton, Holst, Elgar, Britten, Grainger, Albeniz, Turina and De Falla. Guitarist Mark Ashford featured.
Pictures by Simon Pizzey
