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Hard Times

The story's main plot centers on Louisa Gradgrind, a young woman who is taught by her father, schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, to make all decisions based on cold, hard logic. As a result,
Louisa marries a man she loathes, the self-absorbed and hypocritical tycoon Josiah Bounderby. In a parallel plot, Stephen Blackpool, a weaver in Bounderby's factory, struggles against a subjugation he senses but cannot understand, searching for a happier and fairer life. Bounderby's complete inability to understand this search leads him to banish Stephen from the factory, leading to the story's greatest tragedy.

Throughout HARD TIMES, both Mr. Sleary's circus and young Sissy Jupe, the circus girl who comes to live with the Gradgrinds, offer a glimpse of a kinder world, where imagination is encouraged and emotion is freely expressed. As the Gradgrinds' lives collapse, Sissy comes to their aid, righting the wrongs that she can and helping Louisa to discover the generosity, love, and curiosity hidden in her heart. As this happens, Mr. Gradgrind comes to realize the folly of Utilitarianism and the damage he has done to his children.

This adaptation of HARD TIMES is written to be performed by as few as eight singer/actors who will double or even triple. We intend to write a fluid, compact work that retains the wit, tragedy, and narrative muscle of the original --- not to mention a message that is appropriate for our 21st Century "hard times."