ILMINSTER Entertainments Society (IES) is gearing up for its latest production of Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd.

IES is celebrating its 70th birthday, having begun with its first production in 1947 with ‘The Farmer’s Wife’.

Thomas Hardy’s classic depiction of love in a rural Westcountry community will be brought to the stage by Ilminster Entertainments Society at the Warehouse Theatre in Ilminster on July 5-8.

The story, Hardy’s fourth novel and first major literary success, tells the story of Bathsheba Everdene, a young woman who inherits her uncle’s farm and decides to run the farm herself, an unusual decision in a locale (Wessex) and era (Victorian England) where women were expected to leave important responsibilities to a man.

Somerset County Gazette:

Three very different men come into her life - the faithful and congenial shepherd, Gabriel Oak; the wealthy landowner, William Boldwood; and the dashing, dangerous soldier, Frank Troy.

Each of them proposes to her but whom should she choose?

The play is directed by Anna Bowerman, who has directed over 20 productions for IES.

Tickets £9 adults, concs £8, students £5 available from the box office on 07943 779840 or Harriman’s Menswear, in Silver Street, Ilminster.