Aberystwyth Arts Centre Community Theatre will perform a new adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s famous novel, Vanity Fair, from 6-8 April.

Vanity Fair is the story of two women, Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley, who meet as schoolgirls and are thrown into a world of love, intrigue and war, leading up to and beyond the Battle of Waterloo (1815).

George Osborne becomes Amelia’s husband. Rawdon Crawley, a dissolute gambler, Becky’s. In all this, Fate lurks in the shadows - the hidden puppeteer pulling the strings of their lives, and ours.

It is a story of human nature and the strange workings of chance, brought to life by a large community cast and the highly skilled technical team working at the Arts Centre.

Becky and Amelia encounter hard-fisted business men, manipulating aristocrats and social climbers, as well as kind, warm hearted people. Will Becky, the poor, sharp witted orphan find success in a harsh, unforgiving world? Will William Dobbin’s love for Amelia succeed? Will it all be worth it?

Along the way there is drama, satire, tension, comedy and, lots of fun.

This new adaptation is by Richard Hogger and Tom O’Malley. Tom said: “Vanity Fair is a fast moving, entertaining play, based on Thackeray’s masterpiece, first published in 1848.

“It is still in print and is a truly wonderful novel. Richard Hogger and I have brought to life, not only the iconic Becky Sharp, but also the array of remarkable characters Thackeray created.

“Although it is set between 1812 and about 1830, its humour and themes, of love, loss, the search for happiness, and the way things never work out quite as we hope, are as relevant today as it was when the story appeared in the 1840s.”

See the show at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Thursday 6 April at 7.30pm, and Saturday, 8 April, at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.