Overview

The acclaimed stage adaptation of George Eliot's masterpiece, structured in three stand-alone plays that also compliment and illuminate each other.

In Dorothea's Story, the young and intelligent Dorothea is enamoured of the intensity and greatness of the academic Reverend Casaubon, so much so that she marries him, much to everyone's shock. On their honeymoon in Rome a meeting with Casaubon's young cousin Will Ladislaw arouses suspicions in her new husband and he will do anything he can to stop Will's quest for Dorothea's heart. Love and jealousy fuel this first story set among the big houses of the local aristocracy of Middlemarch.

In The Doctor's Story, idealistic Doctor Lydgate arrives in Middlemarch determined to achieve great things. The mayor's beautiful but self-centred daughter Rosamond has her sights set on him and as he is tragically torn between his ambition and his loyalties, he is drawn into an alliance with a corrupt banker with a secret past. Set in the town of Middlemarch itself, where everyone wants to know each other s business.

In Fred and Mary, Fred is trying to please his parents and become a country gentleman, but his childhood sweetheart Mary will have none of it. Set amongst those dependent on the countryside, this poignant but light-hearted story shows the importance of true and shared values in love and work.

Set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch, thought to be based on Coventry, during the period 1830 32, Middlemarch has multiple plots, a large cast of character, and, in addition to its distinct though interlocking narratives, pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Geoffrey Beevers' miraculous adaptation is 'a delight from beginning to end.' (Telegraph)