Tom Kitching and Jennifer Reid present their new show, ‘Bitter and Mild’, a tongue-in-cheek celebration of their native North West of England, through songs, stories, and a skeletal horse.

Flitting between timeless rural Cheshire and ever-changing industrial Manchester, ‘Bitter and Mild’ is a fast-paced, anarchic, singalong ramble and rant through those steadfast and vital traditions upon which we lean as we seek to make sense of the bewildering changes wrought by industrialisation and modernity: singing, dancing, drinking, making giant puppets out of expired farm animals.

Fiddle player and author, Tom Kitching has worked with numerous singers and bands, including Pilgrims’ Way, Gavin Davenport, Jon Loomes, Gren Bartley, Zoe Mulford, and Albireo.

Rooted in archives and oral histories, Jennifer Reid‘s work braids nineteenth-century music with the present: teaching, performing, researching, sharing, advocating and supporting spaces for memory and making in the tradition.