IF the idea of a Victorian love story condensed for the stage is right up your street, then The Tenant of Wildfell Hall at the Octagon Theatre is for you.

Throw in the daughter of Shakespearean 'royalty' Jonathan Pryce in the lead role, and the current production will be even more attractive.

Phoebe Pryce brings her RADA training and presumably what she learned from her famous father to the role of the mysterious newcomer to the 19th century small community in Yorkshire.

Her strangeness to her neighbours, the Markham family, is shared by the audience ... at first I wasn't sure I was going to like her. But just as Gilbert Markham is drawn to the enigmatic artist, so are we. As her character and background gradually unravel, we are drawn into the story.

There is a lot of coming and going around mealtimes in the first half ... blink and you'll lose track of whether we're on breakfast, dinner or tea. And there's not much sense of space, considering we're a four-mile walk from a view of the sea.

But things open up after the interval, the story unwinds and Phoebe brings her Helen to life as the story turns into a flashback of the domestic hell she has escaped.

Writer Deborah McAndrew and director Elizabeth Newman make much of the difference between the true Christianity of Helen and the Pharisaical kind displayed by the local minister. But those references don't translate well from the early Victorian novel of the daughter of an Irish priest . . . they seemed lost on the 21st century audience, who caught comedy where I'm not sure it was intended. For instance, Helen's words to her wastrel husband: "We all die Arthur. It's always as well to live with that in mind," provoked hoots of laughter.

However, for all the changes that have affected the status of women since the book was published in 1848, the words of Helen's husband: "You, your fortune and your child belong to me," still ring true for women trapped in a domestic setting they can't escape. Ms Newman did her research at women's refuge Fortalice before she staged the play.

Another small thing to mention, the Yorkshire accents were flaky . . . Susan Twist was safe as the mother of Gilbert . . . but Natasha Davidson and Nicole Lecky have some work to do on theirs before the play transfers to the York Theatre Royal on April 26.

But I liked this adaptation of the lesser known Anne Bronte's novel, in fact I might just go read it.