ADDING up to more than 1,000 pages, Alexandre Dumas’s epic tome The Count Of Monte Cristo is on average five times the length of its 19th century contemporaries.

Never averse to a challenge, Harrogate Theatre’s new associate company, Thunder Road Theatre Company, could not resist the bravura adventure of transforming this complex, sprawling French revenge tale into a high-octane, 90-minute two-hander.

“Our work with bright new things is really important to what Harrogate Theatre is all about, and Thunder Road are probably the associate company with which Kevin Jamieson, our executive producer, works most closely,” says press officer Michaela Noonan. “This production is ambitious to say the least, and we think what this company is doing is knock-out!”

Alex Moran and Siobhan Kendall, who co-founded the company at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, first brought a show to Harrogate Theatre in May 2011. Hyde, Thunder Road’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, went down so well that Jamieson decided to book it again in 2012.

“That’s when our association with Kevin and Harrogate Theatre really began. Kevin loved what we did and has been really supportive,” says Alex, from Huddersfield. “For the new show, he’s helped us with the design and with access to rehearsal space, allowing us to rehearse in the Studio, where we’ll be performing – and Michaela has been fantastic with the publicity too.”

To refresh your memory, in Dumas’s 1844 story, young sailor Edmond Dantes is sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment when jealous minds conspire against him. Helpless and isolated within the Château D’if fortress, his chance escape spurs Dantes’ quest for vengeance, whereupon the hero becomes the villain – and the villain will have his revenge.

From tomorrow, Alex will be playing multiple roles in Polis Loizou’s new stage adaptation, directed by Terence Mann, Alex’s course leader at Central Lancashire.

“Originally it was going to be every character in the book, apart from the Count, but then I thought the audience might get confused by so many characters, and there wouldn’t be enough of each character,” he says. “So I’ll now be playing six or seven, and the Count will be played by Scott Hodgson, who was on the Central Lancashire acting course at the same time as me."

Polis Loizou previously adapted Stevenson’s novella for Hyde. “I met Polis at Buxton when I was doing a show called Blackjack and asked him to do Hyde, and it was great that he gave it a fresh twist with an Edinburgh setting and also looked at Stephenson’s background,” recalls Alex.

“When I suggested he should adapt Dumas’s book, if I’m being completely honest, his reaction was, ‘You know what to do to set my pants on fire’! It was excitement but also oh, my word!”

So, Alex, why would anyone agree to turn 1,000 pages into a studio play? “I think it’s the greatest story ever told,” he asserts. “A jail break; revenge; lost love; all the things you want in a story with some ‘swashbuckling’ as well.”

Thunder Road Theatre Company presents The Count Of Monte Cristo at Harrogate Theatre Studio, tomorrow until May 11, 7.45pm, plus 2.45pm matinee on May 11. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk. A trans-Pennine tour will follow.