IT IS 120 years since the first publication of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. One of Thomas Hardy’s greatest rural novels, it has been a popular choice for film directors and television producers and now, in celebration of this benchmark year, the New Hardy Players are this summer staging their own adaptation of the play.

It is broadly based on Hardy’s own stageplay for a production performed in Dorchester Corn Exchange in 1924 and the players have been in rehearsal for the past three months.

In a happy parallel to the 1924 play, their first main performance takes place tonight in the Corn Exchange in High East Street, Dorchester.

And as a major boost to the cast and crew, the adaptation also has the backing of Norrie Woodhall, the players’ founder and president. She is steeped in Hardy lore, having played the part of Liza Lu – Tess’s little sister – in the 1924 production and also understudied for her sister Gertrude, who played the part of Tess.

The modern-day cast includes Emma Hill in the title role, Eddie Dale as Angel Clare and Terry Bird as the gentrified but caddish Alec d’Urberville who brings about the heroine’s downfall.

Devina Symes, who adapted the play for the stage and is the director of Tess, said: “Norrie asked us to do it. Previously she had always said she didn’t want us to do it because her sister Gertrude was in the 1924 production and she felt it couldn’t really be the same.

“But as we have done other shows that she has been pleased with, she said she knew we could do it really well and that she would like it if we did it. It was the highest accolade we could have really.

“Norrie hadn’t been well, so her great-nephew suggested that we go to her house and show her how the play was doing, so we performed three scenes in her conservatory and she loved it.

She was thrilled and said that the actors who played Alex and Angel were even better than the originals. She was also pleased that the actress playing Tess has deep Dorset roots. It means a great deal to her.”

Norrie also requested that three scenes that she considers key to the story of Tess are included in the play. As a result, Angel now carries the three dairymaids across a river, the audience will see the death and burial of a baby – this was left out of Hardy’s 1924 production – and the play ends with Angel and Tess at Stonehenge.

The stage set for this scene has been specially built and designed by 17-year-old drama student Frederick Lloyd.

Devina says she is delighted with the way the cast has pulled together and brought the play into being.

“Everyone in the whole has worked extremely hard and I am really pleased with how the main three characters have taken on their roles,” she said, “especially Emma who is on stage for nine-tenths of the time.

“Everybody has been fantastic.

“When Tess was first published it caused outrage because of its theme of a fallen maid but there is so much more to it than the doom and gloom that people usually automatically think about.

“There is a lot of humour in the original novel and our adaptation is true to that story.”