The Farmer’s Wife
World Premiere of a brand-new play inspired by Helen Rebanks’ best-selling memoir.
Theatre by the Lake presents the World Premiere of a brand-new play The Farmer’s Wife inspired by Helen Rebanks’ best-selling memoir and shaped by the voices of women within Cumbria’s farming community. Written by award-winning playwright Hannah Khalil (Bristol Old Vic Writer in Residence, National Theatre of Scotland, RSC, The Globe Theatre), this moving and deeply human drama unfolds in the heart of rural Lakeland.
The story follows three generations of women living on a family farm. Here, a daughter, a mother, and a grandmother share a kitchen, their stories overlapping as past and present sit side by side. The animals need feeding. The bills need paying. The forms need filling in. The meals need cooking. The vet needs calling. The list never ends.
At the centre of it all is one woman, holding everything together and beginning to wonder how much longer she can.
Directed by Theatre by the Lake’s Artistic Director and joint CEO Liz Stevenson this all female-led production celebrates human connection and the nurturing journey of honest, farm-to-table food. It honours women’s invisible labour in sustaining family and land while confronting the truths of modern farming life.
Helen Rebanks says: "Having my story inspire an entirely new play at Theatre by the Lake is both thrilling and humbling. Hannah Khalil is an extraordinary playwright — she has taken my experiences, and those of other farming women, and shaped them into something with real emotional depth and a genuine sensitivity to the lives it portrays.”
Where: Theatre by the Lake, Lakeside, Keswick, CA12, 5DJ
When: 18 September – 10 October 2026
Venue details
- Address:
- Theatre by the Lake
- Lakeside
- Keswick
- CA12, 5DJ