Far from the Madding Crowd, Lighthouse, Poole

ADAPTATIONS of novels are strange beasts.

Occasionally they can enhance the original but more usually, as in this case, they reduce a work of art into a lame exercise of hampered storytelling.

There are many delights in Hardy's masterpiece of rural life, but the only one hinted at in this production was the comedic qualities of the rustic minor characters. It was impossible to admire the main roles as they were either feebly played or fighting against inept presentation of the storyline.

The evening became a feat of endurance and there were those who audibly moaned at the dreaded words, "And then the dance began".