MANCHESTER based story The Hard Way comes to Waterside, Sale on Wednesday, June 2 at 7.30.

It tells of Hannah Mitchell, who rose from domestic drudgery to become a Manchester City magistrate.

Hannah manages to escape her hard life to become a campaigner, speaker, writer, suffragette, Councillor and, eventually,  a Manchester City magistrate.

A self-taught, self-made woman, she leaves home aged 14 years, exchanging one exploitative situation for another.

In 1906 she finds herself facing Winston Churchill at a public meeting and goes on to campaign on public platforms across Lancashire and in London.

The show is composed and performed by Louise Jordan.

Following the success of her previous one-woman show, No Petticoats Here (2016-2018), Louise was given Arts Council funding to write a new solo piece around the theme of gender equality.

Louise discovered Hannah Mitchell’s story and wanted to share it with others.

At the time, she was writing a song about the Votes for Women campaign.

Louise said:  “History often confined working class women to drudgery in the home.

“I wanted to celebrate Hannah as a woman who spoke out about the need for equality and who became a public figure in addition to managing the workload expected of a woman in her position.”

The Hard Way brings Hannah’s story to life.   She was witty with a dry sense of humour, intelligent, honest and compassionate and this offered Louise scope to write songs dealing with a wide range of human emotion and experience.

The Hard Way was created by Louise Jordan and Stephanie Jalland (Hoodwink Theatre) with sound design by Jules Bushell.

For tickets, telephone 0161 912 5616 or from Watersiderts.org