This Tightgrip production is new version of Thomas Hardy’s great novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Mike and Caroline, joint founders of TightGrip Productions spent two years adapting the book into a play, which had its premiere on the 27th April 2018. This is arguably one of the greatest of all Hardy’s novels and contains enormous parallels with the attitude towards women and the social and sexual morality of today. Tess declares “I am not any woman!” as she tries to survive poverty, injustice and betrayal in the harsh world of 19th Century rural Wessex. This stage version stresses the highly relevant and significant themes that impact on Tess. These themes are of sexual abuse, abandonment, injustice, hypocrisy, inequality, cruelty and manipulation. It is abundantly clear to anyone who reads his books that Thomas Hardy was an ardent feminist, way before his time. His stories feature many heroic and powerful women who are undergoing extremes of hardship and pain at the hands of men, in a world where women were second class citizens and victims to perpetual abuse and ill treatment. These stories Hardy skillfully intertwines with a passion and love that tries to overcome the darker influences surrounding the protagonists. In contrast and away from the darker themes Tess is also a powerful love story in all its guises and convolutions. It is love that drives Tess forward to fight for what is just and fair, regardless of the consequences.