Deborah McAndrew's witty take on the great Northern novel of repression and longing—Charles Dickens’s Hard Times—is coming to The Lowry in Salford from March 6 to 10.
Dark satanic mills, interrupted by the colour and vibrancy of Sleary’s Circus, set the stage for a sweeping tale of suppressed love, seduction and social mores, peopled with the sharply-observed exaggerated characters for which Dickens is celebrated.
McAndrew said about adapting the classic tale, “I’ve always admired Hard Times—Dickens's one truly Northern novel. The title is a bit off-putting, giving the impression of a story that is relentlessly grim. However, it's full of all the usual brilliant Dickens characters and lots of very good jokes. It's also a life-affirming story and a manifesto against a dry, utilitarian approach to education and human discourse in general."
Audiences will meet the characters below a big top where the flames of a circus fire-eater become the flaming coals of the inscrutable young Louise Gradgrind as she stares into the fire, searching for something within herself.