The Hard Way: the story of working class suffragette Hannah Mitchell. From a remote hilltop farm in the Derbyshire moorlands to Manchester city magistrate, The Hard Way is a one-woman show of storytelling with song based on Hannah’s real life story.
With two weeks’ formal schooling behind her and through her sheer force of character, Hannah escapes domestic drudgery to become a campaigner, speaker, writer, suffragette, councillor and Manchester city magistrate.
A self-taught, self-made woman, Hannah leaves home aged fourteen, exchanging one exploitative situation for another. In 1906 she finds herself face to face with Winston Churchill at a public meeting and spends time in Strangeways prison. This show celebrates one woman’s determination to take power in the face of insurmountable barriers, motivated by a desire to improve life for those around her.
“Life to me has been a great adventure”
“The work we began, the cause we sponsored, the faith we held will all remain to be carried on, we hope, by abler hands than ours”
The Hard Way was created with support from Arts Council England
The Hard Way was created with support from the EFDSS