The storyline in Far from the Madding Crowd is the television equivalent of an episode of the Jeremy Kyle Show.
You have three men who are all in love or have been in love with this one woman who claims 'her great weakness is her vanity'.
This vanity is at times is like a preening peacock, she wants to be noticed, wants to be complimented on her beauty but when she is, she dismisses these men as being foolish when they tell her of her beauty.
But then craves it more and more.
Let us say the first man on stage in Gabriel Oak, the man who is the first to be spurned, then it is William Boldwood whose passion is ignited by a Valentine card sent as a joke, followed by Sgt Frank Troy, the man who tamed and married the woman but really did not care.
And finally on screen, the woman herself Bathsheba Everdene.
All the men know they are her suitors but each believe they are the man for her.
It is a romantic Gordian knot of love between four people, and like the knot which Alexander the Great cut with a sword, this knotted love affair has to be broken in a similar dramatic way.
Bathsheba swoons and falls for Sgt Troy but here is the twist even though she loves him with all her heart, he loves Fanny Robin the most. And she is pregnant with his child.
The crowd go wild...the cad, the bounder, the love rat.
The Ilminster Entertainments Society have breathed new life into this rural love affair.
Credit must go to the cast of Rosie Clark as Bathsheba Everdene, George Montague as Gabriel Oak, Philip Hunt as William Boldwood and Jonathan Peckover as Sgt Frank Troy.
They pull the audience into the play and help drawn them into a story which twists and turns at every move.
It is a solid production put together by director Anna Bowerman and dedicated amateur actors and actresses.
The stage setting is inventive having one stage but splitting it into more than one set at one time by using lighting, back projection or having characters wait in limbo while others act out a scene before returning back to those frozen in time.
If you like Victorian drama then you would be wise to pop along and catch this production by The Ilminster Entertainments Society.
Far from the Madding Crowd is on at the Warehouse Theatre in Ilminster from Wednesday, July 5 to Saturday, July 8.
Tickets cost £9 for adults, £8 concession, £5 student.
These can be bought from Harrimans Menswear, Silver Street, Ilminister or by calling 07943 779880.
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