The Hired Man to be revived as part of Queen's Theatre Hornchurch 2019 spring season

Queen's Theatre Hornchurch has announced its spring 2019 season, featuring play and musical revivals.

Melvyn Bragg and Howard Goodall's The Hired Man will be revived in a co-production between Queen's Theatre, Hull Truck Theatre and Oldham Coliseum. Based on Bragg's novel of the same name, the show is set in a rural area around Thurston in the 1890s. It was revived in London's Union Theatre last year.

Goodall said: "I am absolutely thrilled about this revival: three brilliant
regional theatres, a wonderful creative team and a chance for a new generation of
theatre-goers to see this piece that Melvyn Bragg and I first put in front of an
audience 45 years ago."

The show will be directed by the venue's artistic director Douglas Rintoul with design by Jean Chan, musical direction by Ben Goddard, lighting design by Prema Mehta, sound design by Chris Murray and movement direction by Jane Gibson. It will run in Hornchurch from 27 April to 18 May.

From 22 February to 9 March, the venue will co-produce Amanda Whittington's Kiss Me Quickstep with the New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich. The ballroom drama will then run in Ipswich before transferring to Theatr Clwyd in Mold.

The piece will be directed by Kirstie Davis, designed by Jess Curtis with lighting design by Mark Dymock, sound design by James Cook and choreography by Lucie Pankhurst.

The venue will present the regional premiere of David Eldridge's In Basildon, after the show first premiered at the Royal Court in 2012. Also directed by Rintoul, it runs from 14 to 30 March.

The venue will also initiate a new two-year programme to champion a positive image of Essex, working with emerging artists and establish a network of venues. There will be three rehearsed readings of new plays by Essex playwrights – Sadie Hasler, Kelly Jones and Dan Murphy.

As already announced, the venue will host a new National Theatre Public Acts performance of As You Like It from 24 to 27 August.