A celebration of Laurie Lee on the Chichester Festival Theatre stage

SussexWorld

Anton Lesser discovered the writing of Laurie Lee at exactly the right time in his life – a time at which he could fully appreciate its depth and beauty.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this

00:06afternoon to speak to Anton Lesser. Anton, you are coming to Chichester for the very

00:11first time at Chichester Festival Theatre with a lovely sounding show, Red Sky at Sunrise,

00:17Laurie Lee in Words and Music on Tuesday, October the 28th. Now you had, Anton, you

00:24had the good fortune to read Laurie Lee at the right time in your life. Yes, I did.

00:30I did. But you did. You did. I did. I only read it. I assumed I'd read it at school like

00:38everybody does, you think. Cider with Rosie, oh yeah, I must have read that. But of course

00:42I realised I hadn't. And when I was presented with it about three years ago, with a view

00:50to doing a show about it, I was, it was a revelation, absolute revelation. Some of the

00:57most beautiful writing I've ever encountered. And as you say, write for it. I wasn't spoilt

01:04at school, like so many people are. And it blew me away. The poetry, the love in it. The countryside,

01:16Laurie's birth in Slat in Gloucestershire, his journey through down to Southampton and then

01:24on a boat to Spain, where he gets involved in the Spanish Civil War and then he comes

01:29back and then realises he's come back too soon and he feels guilty that he should have contributed

01:37more. And he goes back to Spain and he gets involved in action and he comes back and ends

01:43his life where it began. It's the most beautiful, beautiful.

01:46It's so evocative, isn't it? And there's such a sense of journey. And how do you convey this

01:51on the stage? You're saying it's not a play, it's not a concert.

01:55It's not a play. We haven't learned masses of text, which is lovely because I just turn

02:04up. And we tell the story, but we tell it in a very unusual way. There's an orchestra,

02:11magnificent orchestra of the Swan, and Charlie Hamlet, the other actor and myself. We tell the

02:21story in various ways. We read extracts, sometimes the music underscores, sometimes it interweaves,

02:29sometimes there's just music. Sometimes we dip in and out of the characters. Sometimes

02:35I'm old Laurie and Charlie's young Laurie. Sometimes we reverse it and we play female characters that

02:41occur in the story. It's funny. It's heartbreakingly moving. It's brilliant writing. I think if you are

02:53familiar with Laurie Lee, you will just love being retold the tale of his life. If you're not familiar,

03:03you will be astonished, as I will. I so wish I didn't read it at school that I wrecked it for me.

03:11But it's time to reconsider, isn't it? Oh, sorry about that.

03:16And what's so interesting, your first time at Chichester's Festival Theatre. It was slightly

03:21surprising. Yeah, I'm very excited because I've been to see a play there, but I've never worked there. So

03:29I'm really looking forward to that. Fantastic. And the prospect of doing your Hardy show at some

03:35point? Oh, yes, yes. Now, if you come and see this and you love it, which I don't doubt you will,

03:46look at Hamblet's website. That's Hamblets with two T's, Hamblets.com. And people can see the venues

03:54and dates of our other show, which is called A Beautiful Thread. It's similarly adorable and

04:02touching and brilliant. And that's not just me and Charlie, that's Lucia Bonbright,

04:12a lady who sings and acts. It's a similar kind of format that we've evolved. And yeah.

04:19Well, it sounds lovely. Well, Anton, lovely to speak to you. Red Sky at Sunrise,

04:24Laurie Lee in Words and Music, Chichester's Festival Theatre, Tuesday, October the 28th.

04:29Thanks very much indeed. And it's really lovely to speak to you. Thank you. See you there.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended