Change is inevitable, is important. The
birds know it – they've adapted their songs
because of the noise of the motorway. The
foxes know it – some of them have even
moved into towns where there's more
food to be had . . . do you understand
it's change or die!

In The Farmer's Wife, one day holds a lifetime. Three generations of women from the same family – a daughter, a mother and a grandmother – share a kitchen, their stories overlapping as the 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.

Inspired by Helen Rebanks' Sunday Times best-selling memoir and shaped by the voices of women in farming across Cumbria, Hannah Khalil's original play captures both the beauty and the weight of a life rooted in the land.

The Farmer's Wife is a story of resilience and community in a changing world.

This edition was published to coincide with the production at Theatre by the Lake in September 2026.

Hannah Khail was named one of four writers in residence at Bristol Old Vic from 2025-2030 along with Winsome Pinnock, Sam Parker and Muneera Pilgrim. She has also been named an Associate Artist of Shakespeare's Globe. Recent work includes Love Omar at Theatro Technis London (pictured) and radio plays Tipping Point and Margaret White and the Alcoran of Mahomet both available on BBC Sounds.

Elsewhere, Hannah's latest play My English Persian Kitchen transferred to Soho Theatre London from September to October 2024 after a sell out, award-winning (Entertainment Now Outstanding Theatre Production), critically acclaimed run at the Traverse as part of the Edinburgh Festival 2024. It was one of the Evening Standard's picks of the Edinburgh transfers. It returned to Soho in autumn 2025 ahead of a Bristol and Irish tour.