You've got no money and you want to compete with those who have. Everybody is striving for what is not worth the having!

Adapted from Thackeray's sprawling novel satirising the ambitions and vanities of society in nineteenth century England, Vanity Fair follows two girls who leave Miss Pinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies and embark on parallel journeys to make their way in the world. Becky Sharp is cunning and manipulative, while Amelia Smedley believes fidelity and honour are the tools for social climbing.

As their lives and careers intermingle and they follow their soldier husbands into the Napoleonic Wars, Thackeray's tale puts British morality under the microscope. Originally published in monthly installments between January 1847 and July 1848, the story is subtitled 'a novel without a hero', due to its unconventional portrayal of a society without scruples.

Vanity Fair condenses the scandals, dramas, battles and society balls of Thackeray's novel into two hours of drama, and is the first of two plays this season to be directed by Associate Artist, Tony Cownie (Mrs Warren's Profession, Tartuffe).

Adapted by Declan Donnellan from the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray

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