The Hired Man

Based on Melvyn Bragg's stirring novel of rural and industrial working life early in the twentieth century, The Hired Man tells of one family's - Bragg's grandparents' - journey from land laborers to colliers and back to the land. The superb score is a marvelous succession of chorales, operatic duets and vigorous foot stomping rhythms.

"Bracing, rugged and exhilarating [with] splendidly original music" Time Out

"Thoughtful and, on occasions, most moving... That rare thing: a folk opera of our immediate past" Daily Mail

"Melvyn Bragg's qualities as a novelist-- humanity, idealism and a complex and highly articulate man's understanding of those who are simple and inarticulate - shine out from the musical" Sunday Telegraph