SYNOPSIS

We open with Tess, our heroine, and Iz, our narrator, who warn us not to judge the leading lady’s actions, but to listen to her song (“Song Like Mine”). The story begins in Victorian England, in the village of Marlott, where Tess Durbeyfield & her fellow countrywomen celebrate beginning of Spring (“Come Ye”). During the May Day dance, she catches eyes with a handsome young visitor, although he dances with another woman (“When I Marry You”).

After the festivities, Tess returns home to put her little sister, Liza Lu, to bed, and shares her dreams for a better life (“Liza Lu’s Lullaby”). Suddenly, John & Joan Durbeyfield (Tess’s parents) arrive in a drunken mess, announcing that they’ve learned that they’re descended from the noble D’Urberville family (“Sir John”)! Tess and her brother, Abe, ride to market that night in place of their parents. Exhausted, Tess crashes their cart, killing their horse. To make up for the loss, Tess agrees to work at the estate of their noble kin. Alec D’Urbervilles, the lord of the estate, attempts to seduce her, despite her polite refusal. He continues to push Tess’s boundaries, and leads her into a meadow where he rapes her (“Man Has Made of Man”).

Tess gives birth to Alec’s child, naming him “Sorrow”. Her father rejects the child, calling him a bastard, as the baby falls ill. Tess’s siblings, Abe, Charlotte, and Liza Lu baptize their nephew in his final moments (“Sorrow’s Hymn”). With Sorrow gone and her family poorer than ever, Tess sets off alone to work at Talbothays Dairy, and leaves a note to Liza Lu, as Iz narrates (“Away”).

Talbothays provides Tess with a welcoming community and a fresh start (“Talbothays”), as she befriends fellow dairymaids Iz, Marian, and Rhetty. The girls swoon over a young gentleman, Angel, who is the same man from the May Day dance (“Laddie with the Shining Hair”). Angel meets Tess again and sparks fly (“When I Marry You (Reprise)”). Angel asks for Tess’s hand in marriage (“Angel’s Proposal”), and they have a simple wedding (“The Wedding”).

As cold weather arrives (“Talbothays (Reprise)”), Tess and Angel discuss their pasts. Angel reveals that he had an affair in his youth, and Tess shares her story of Alec and Sorrow. Angel is shocked, and abandons their marriage; his image of Tess being pure & virginal is broken. With her husband missing, Tess joins Iz and Marian to work on a new farm in harsher conditions (“Can’t Go Home”). While they’re at work, Alec arrives as a pastor, claiming he must save the woman he wronged. Tess reveals her story with Marian & Iz, and all of the dairymaids share in her anguish (“Song Like Mine (Reprise)”).

Liza Lu arrives with news: their father, John, has died, leaving their family destitute and unable to make an income. Tess returns home to mourn her father, her marriage, and her happiness, as Iz, Marian & Rhetty write to Angel about Alec’s return (“Time & Space”). Before Angel can come back, Tess marries Alec, as it is the only option left for her to support her family. However, the trauma of living with her rapist is unbearable; she stabs and kills Alec to set herself free (“Not Yet”). Angel then arrives, and they decide to run away together, to start a new life in Scotland (“Song of Springtime”).

Before they can escape, Tess is arrested and hanged for the murder of Alec D’Urberville (“Man Has Made of Man (Reprise)”). Led by Iz, Marian, and Liza Lu, the feminine voices of our story assemble to remind us that this injustice has happened to thousands, if not millions, of women throughout history; we’ll continue finding the strength to speak up against abuse, and finding solace in each other (“Voices”).