(Image: Northern Ballet)
Anne Lister’s life as Gentleman Jack will come to the stage in a new ballet at Bradford’s Alhambra Theatre next month.
Northern Ballet will tell the Yorkshire woman’s story, from her adventures and heartbreaks to her triumphs. Lister lived, dressed and loved as she pleased, defying 19th-century expectations.
Her diaries were decoded after her death, revealing her adventures, heartbreaks and triumphs. Since then, they have inspired biographies, novels and a television series.
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa choreographed the ballet, with Peter Salem providing the music.
Gentleman Jack is a co-production with the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. Tickets cost £21 to £59, and performances run from September 3 to 5.
Lister was a landowner who lived at Shibden Hall in Halifax, and her more than four million-word diaries document her relationships with women.
The production explores Lister’s relationships with Ann Walker and Mariana Lawton, drawing on elements of her adult life recorded in her journals.
The production has a mostly female artistic team that includes Sally Wainwright, whose BBC/HBO drama helped bring Lister’s story to a wider audience.