THE New Hardy Players are performing an open-air play in Bridport again this year.

The players, based in Dorchester, will perform The Woodlanders on the Millennium Green tomorrow, August 30, at 7pm.

The performance is at the invitation of Friends of Bridport Museum chairman Jeremy Worth following the successful production of Tess of the d’Urbervilles in 2011.

The play has been adapted from Thomas Hardy’s novel by Emily Fearn, from Bridport, assisted by Elizabeth Gale, former chairman of the Friends of Bridport Museum.

It will be directed by Tim Laycock, a Dorset musician, folk singer, actor and storyteller, and co-directed by Emma Hill, who played Tess in the last production.

The Woodlanders is a typical Hardy drama set in the wooded area of mid-Dorset.

The lives of the people who live and work there depend a great deal on what grows around them.

Love – some unrequited – jealousy, and illness affect what happens throughout the story.

The audience is invited to arrive early for the performance to have a picnic at the Millennium Green, but in the event of bad weather the performance will be held indoors.

Entrance programmes are £10.