CARLTON PLAYERS

28th Feb - 7th Mar 2009

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

a period costume drama

adapted by Matthew White

from the novel by Thomas Hardy

Its title taken from Thomas Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard', Far from the Madding Crowd is one of Thomas
Hardy's 'Wessex' novels and the first of real substance.
Although the novel is not Hardy's most subtle, it is a
convincing portrait of the rural life that the author knew so
well and cherished in his years after London. The passion,
melodrama, earthy humour and strong gripping plot are
vividly conveyed in Matthew White's fast-moving and
admirably economical adaptation. Written to be performed
with the simplest of settings and a relatively small cast, this is
a powerfully intimate, concentrated theatrical experience.
Period 1870's.