Last updated 16:06, Wednesday, 03 September 2008

A FAMOUS Lake District story of passionate love and cruel deception will sweep across the stage in Keswick in Easter next year.

Theatre by the Lake is presenting a dramatisation of a favourite novel by Cumbria’s best-known contemporary author.

Lisa Evans’ adaptation of Melvyn Bragg’s The Maid of Buttermere will be staged in the Main House from Friday, March 20 to April 18, as part of the theatre’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

“I'm delighted that Theatre by the Lake is to bring this story to the stage, one which has intrigued residents of Cumbria and visitors to the county for more than 200 years,” said Melvyn Bragg, one of the theatre’s patrons.

The production will feature a cast of professional actors supported by members of the community.

The Maid of Buttermere follows Theatre by the Lake’s production in 2004 of The Hired Man, Howard Goodall's musical based on Melvyn Bragg’s novel of the same name.

Mary Robinson, the daughter of the innkeeper of the Fish Inn at Buttermere, was famed for her outstanding beauty and visitors travelled from miles around in the early years of the 19th century to catch a glimpse of her as she served in the bar and tended her flocks.

Her looks – and her long, beautiful hair that reached to her waist – also attracted the attention of John Hatfield, a philandering cad bent on marrying a rich heiress while posing as Colonel Alexander Augustus Hope, MP for Linlithgowshire and brother to the Earl of Hopetoun.

In Melvyn Bragg’s 1987 novel The Maid of Buttermere, Mary and Hatfield fall headlong in love with each other and declare their passion in the porch in Lorton Church.

However the bogus aristocrat’s past catches up with him.

“It’s a wonderful story,'” said Ian Forrest, Theatre by the Lake’s artistic director. “This is Cumbria’s Gone With The Wind. We hope our stage version will capture the hearts of our audience. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate our 10th anniversary.”

Much of Bragg’s book is set in Keswick, Borrowdale and the North Lakes. At one point, Hatfield strolls from Keswick to Derwentwater, passing the site of Theatre by the Lake and turning to Friar’s Crag.

For tickets telephone 017687 74411 or visit www.theatrebythelake.com