Hard Times is set in Coketown, a grimy, polluted place in the industrial north of nineteenth century England. Against this imposing backdrop, several interlinked stories are played out, woven together like the cloth on which the town’s fortune depends...
The play opens in Gradgrind’s school, where we witness his fixation on Fact; Sissy, imaginative and sensitive, is lost for words when asked to describe a horse - how do you put into words the essence of something so beautiful, and dearly loved?
We see how reductive Gradgrind’s world of Facts is and the terrible toll it takes on his own children, Thomas and Louisa, and the harm it does to the school’s start pupil, Bitzer.
Meanwhile, in ‘the hardest working part of Coketown’, the weaver Stephen Blackpool longs to be free of his dreadful marriage, and be with the woman he loves:
‘I want to know the law that helps me.’
‘...There is such a law. But it’s not for you at all.’
His place as a disillusioned outsider is confirmed years later, when he refuses to join the Union.
And who is the smiling old lady Mrs Pegler, up from the country, who was seen gazing up at the bank around the time of the robbery?
Throughout all this, Sissy, loyal companion to Louisa, yearns to see her father again, and when Sleary’s Circus comes to town, it offers her hope, and becomes a temptation few can resist.
Production Photos
Photographs by Robert Day
Education
An resource pack was produced for this tour. To download a copy please click here.
Cast
Sonia Beck
- Sissy, Mrs Gradgrind, Mrs Sparsit, Rachael, Mary Stokes
Michael Onslow
- Bounderby, Sleary, Bitzer, Harthouse, Slackbridge
Chris Porter
- Gradgrind, Tom, Blackpool, Waiter
Naomi Wattis
- Louisa, Emma Gordon, Mrs Blackpool, Mrs Pegler, Chairwoman
Production Credits
Adaptation by
- Stephen Jeffreys
Artistic Director
- Neil Sissons
Casting Director
- Sooki McShane
Designer
- Neil Irish
Composer
- Christopher Madin
Lighting Designer
- Jason Taylor
Production Manager
- Dan Franklin
Stage Manager
- Chris McCullough
Rehearsal Deputy Stage Manager
- Blue Merrick
Set Construction
- Top Show
Costume Supervisor
- Chris Wilson
Poster & Print Design
- Iain Lanyon (Kean Lanyon)
Production Photography
- Robert Day
Programme & Web Design
- Un.titled
Print Production
- John Good Ltd
Education Director
- Helen Cadbury
General Manager
- Craig Dronfield
Administrative Assistant
- Amy Smith
Tour Schedule
27th - 30th September
- Theatre Royal, Wakefield
3rd - 7th October
- Greenwich Theatre, London
10th - 11th October
- Lighthouse, Poole
21st - 25th March
- Lighthouse, Poole
12th - 14th October
- Palace Theatre, Mansfield
17th - 21st October
- New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
24th - 28th October
- Brewhouse Theatre, Taunton
31st October - 4th November
- Oldham Coliseum
7th - 8th November
- Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham
14th - 15th November
- Stahl Theatre, Oundle
16th - 18th November
- Plowright Theatre, Scunthorpe
20th - 22nd November
- Cambridge Arts Theatre
18th – 20th April
- The Playhouse, Harlow
1st - 2nd December
- Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond, North Yorkshire
5th - 9th December
- Library Theatre, Sheffield