Set around the kitchen table in the farm kitchen, The Farmer’s Wife holds nothing back in telling her guests, the audience, just what life is really like living off the land on the Cumbrian Fells.
Inspired by the memoir A Farmer’s Wife by Helen Rebanks, the new play by Hannah Khalil, The Farmer’s Wife, had its World Premiere at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick just a few miles from where Rebanks lives.
Having read the book, I did wonder how they would incorporate the beautifully eclectic style of stories from the Rebanks family life, recipes, photos and letters. However, this was achieved superbly with the sharing of the baking and sorting of an old tin box.
This is a story about the changing lives of women living and working on the farms. Three generations: daughter, mother, grandmother knit and weave their own experiences in a truly realistic portrayal of family life. You don’t have to have been brought up on a farm or live on one to share the frustrations and bickering that is at the heart of the home.
However, this imaginatively crafted production also shines a light on the changing role of women in agriculture. Identifying the political impacts on the industry which is a way of life, not a career option.
Women can be farmers, and they can be farmers’ wives. These are two very different but equally essential roles that keep food production in the UK going.
This is a very strong cast of three. No stranger to Theatre by the Lake, Roberta Kerr as ‘Oldest‘ gives a powerful portrayal of a farmer’s wife who saw the biggest changes to British agriculture after World War II and into the 1970s, when small farms started to be squeezed out of our landscape. Her daughter, ‘the next generation of Farmer’s Wife Older ’, is trying to keep the family and farm going single handedly. Christine Entwisle captures perfectly the frustration of the never-ending list of life and farm admin that she faces continually. Baking is her release, but it now appears to be a luxury to ‘bake from scratch’.
The next generation, ‘Young’ has hope, ambition and plans to make her family farm successful. She is a Farmer. Eireann Devlin gives this role energy, passion and attitude. The sparring between Young and Older mirrors the Older and Oldest battles around the kitchen table. Together these three women are a tour de force.
The kitchen disco scene is a fun reminder that even in the darkest and hardest days, there is joy to be found around (and on!) the kitchen table for the farmer’s mum and daughter.
The disruption of the farm dog is something every dog owner will have experienced – and in this context the animal could represent the lack of control humans have over nature.
There is an undercurrent throughout the play of fear around what is to come. But there is hope, and there is community, as the final scenes capture.
This 90-minute production is based around one pivotal day – with flashbacks to milestone moments in the family’s lives – six generations living off this land, sitting around that table.
The Farmer’s Wife takes you into the heart of farming life and holds no punches.
- The Farmer’s Wife runs until Saturday 10 October 2026 at Theatre by the Lake. For more information and tickets, visit theatrebythelake.com
