CENTENARIAN Norrie Woodhall will come full circle when her acting troupe stage Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

She has asked the New Hardy Players to perform the novel as their production for next year.

Norrie, aged 104, of Owermoigne, appeared in Thomas Hardy’s own adaptation of the novel in 1924 when she played Tess’s sister, Liza-Lu.

The New Hardy Players agreed to stage the adaptation after a successful tour of Hardy’s The Distracted Preacher this summer.

The group performed the work – a romantic comedy about smuggling – amid the ruins of Corfe Castle and in Dorchester Borough Gardens.

New Hardy Players co-founder Devina Symes said: “Norrie asked us to do Tess.

“It will be very special. For a while she was not sure about the New Hardy Players doing Tess.

“She had Thomas Hardy’s version very much in her own mind.

“She saw us do the Mayor of Casterbridge last year and she realised that there are some really good actors that could do it.”

Norrie, who is a member of the New Hardy Players, was a member of Hardy’s original Hardy Players nearly 100 years ago.

Her sister Gertrude took the title role in Hardy’s own stage adaptation in 1924. The Dorchester Borough Gardens were packed for the recent production of The Distracted Preacher.

Devina said: “It went really well.

“There was a good audience and they enjoyed it. It is difficult to say but I would think there were a couple of hundred there.

“It was a lovely evening and to do it in the Borough Gardens was very special.”

A collection raised £415 to be split between Weldmar Hospicecare Trust and the New Hardy Players.

Eddie Dale, of Winfrith, played the title role in the Distracted Preacher, who stumbles across the smuggling activities amongst his new flock.

Devina said: “What is coming over really well is Hardy’s humour.

“In all of his productions, there is humour. The audience love it.”