Tilbourne Players are presenting The Heiress at the Tilford Institute on March 30, 31 and April 1.

Rehearsals are going well and director Hilary Lee-Corbin said: “People are in for a treat. It’s a great story– after all, it is Henry James – and the actors are absolutely inspiring.  

“As the director, I always come away from the rehearsal thinking, ‘What a powerful play’.

“The story is set in 19th-century New York and is of an upper middle-class family and the drama which besets them – in fact, the world in which Henry James was brought up.  

“Although he became an English citizen, he frequently returned to this setting in his novels. 

“This play centres around a shy, naïve young woman, Catherine, who does her utmost to please her father but somehow always seems to fall short of his expectations. He has become an embittered man who holds his dead wife up as a paragon and, in his eyes, Catherine can never reach her standards.  

“Then along comes Morris, a handsome young man and Catherine falls desperately in love. Intertwined with all this are the themes of love and money. What will happen? Come along and find out.”

Tickets can be booked at www.tilbourneplayers.co.uk