Anton Lesser stars in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in Words and Music with Orchestra of the Swan
Birmingham Town Hall – Monday, 15 December at 7.30pm. Tickets £44 inc.
“I will live in the past, the present, and the future.”
Anton Lesser, one of the very finest interpreters of Dickens, gives his virtuoso performance of A Christmas Carol in Words and Music, in the very room Charles Dickens first performed his ‘ghostly little story’.
This unique show combines Dickens’ words with live music, performed by Orchestra of the Swan. The on-stage musicians weave around the action, heightening the suspense and sweeping emotion of this immortal Christmas story in a way Dickens himself would thoroughly approve. Anton Lesser’s astonishing versatility, comedy, and ability to break hearts makes him the perfect partner for Dickens, whose teeming cast of characters come to dazzling life in this astonishing performance. Born and raised in Birmingham, Anton is delighted to bring his Christmas Carol to the city of his birth. (Anton attended Moseley Grammar, and still lives locally.)
Star of stage and screen, Anton Lesser (Wolf Hall, Endeavour, Game of Thrones, Andor) is a magician of the spoken word. He has one of the country’s most recognisable – and best loved – voices. Anton has read almost all of Dickens’ works for Audible, and the BBC. His extensive radio work includes BBC Radio 4’s Falco, and recent Kafka anniversary, and he has won multiple awards, including a ‘Talkie’ for Great Expectations.
Anton Lesser says: ‘Words and Music is a kind of unique genre, neither pure reading, nor acting, but there’s this wonderful immediacy, that comes from the huge emotional impact the music has upon the words, and vice versa, and the interplay we actors enjoy with the musicians on-stage. Quite simply, it’s the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done! I’m thrilled and delighted – as a Birmingham boy – to be performing in the actual place Dickens’s immortal tale began. The very thought gives me goosebumps!’
There may have been more Christmas Carols than ghosts of Christmas past in recent years, but this is the one not to miss! Anton Lesser’s A Christmas Carol in Words and Music is the perfect start to the season’s celebrations – ‘God bless us, every one!’
Anton Lesser’s A Christmas Carol in Words and Music with Orchestra of the Swan
Birmingham Town Hall, Monday, 15 December at 7.30pm
Tickets £44. Booking: bmusic.co.uk