IF your idea of a musical involves John Travolta in leather trousers, then you should probably give The Hired Man a miss.

But if you like your song-and-dance routines with a bit of social history, then this play by Melvyn Bragg could be right up your street.

Set in Cumbria around 1900, it tells the story of John Tallentire, a man with nothing to sell but his labour.

Along with his young wife Emily, he heads to the hills to work all day in the fields.

On occasional trips to the pub he is joined by free-spirited Isaac and socialist organiser Seth.

Emily, increasingly bored of life in such isolation, seeks solace with the landlord’s son.

Tiring of a life of ceaseless toil in the fields, John and Emily move to the mines of Whitehaven, where the coal seam goes right out to sea.

In the second part of the play we go forward 15 years to 1914. The couple have two teenage children and John, weary of life in the pits, volunteers to go off to war.

In the mud of France he finds a sense of brotherhood similar to that of the hired farm hands 15 years earlier.

An expert cast performed the show at the Lawrence Batley Theatre last night, holding the audience’s attention with material which might best be described as “challenging”.

The cast of seven men and two women didn’t put a foot wrong during the many songs, some of which brought sustained applause from the audience.

In parts comic and tragic, The Hired Man is well worth a look by anyone who has the slightest interest in the social history of England.

The Hired Man will be performed tonight at 7:30pm at the Lawrence Batley Theatre. For more information call 01484 430 528 or visit www.lbt-uk.org.