Brilliant adaptation of Charles Dickens biting novel Hard Times.
Dominated by Gradgrind and Bounderby, Coketown’s prosperity is built on the cotton mills where thousands of men and women slave away for long hours and little pay. Gradgrind’s obsession with material progress damages his children Louisa and Tom, leading to scandal and disaster. ‘Hard Times’ celebrates the importance of the human heart in an age obsessed with materialism. Circus, music, and dark comedy all go into the rich mix of this truly Dickensian theatrical tale.
Charles Way has written over 50 plays, specializing in writing for children, young people and family audiences. His plays are performed worldwide. He has won several major awards - A Spell of Cold Weather won the Writers Guild best children's play award in 2001 and in 2004 his play Red Red Shoes won the English Arts Council best children's play award. In Germany, his play Missing won the Children's Theatre prize and in the USA he was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award. He was commissioned by the National Theatre to write Alice In The News, which children all over Britain have performed. He has also written many plays for radio, and a TV poem for BBC 2, No Borders, set in the Welsh borders, where he lives and has spent most of his creative life.
"A stellar adaptation by Charles Way, moving, thoughtful and wonderfully drawn’. What’s on Stage *****
‘Way gives real depth to characters, replaces Dickens’ sentimentality with warmth and his censoriousness with moral indignation’. The Independent *****
‘daringly restructures Dickens’ plot, yet sticks to the motto of his lisping ringmaster Mr Sleary: “People mutht be amuthed.”’ The Observer
