A PLAY about iconic Dorset fossil hunter Mary Anning will be performed in Dorchester and Weymouth.

Mary Anning: The Mad Woman of Lyme will be performed by Dorset-based theatre company AsOne at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Wednesday, March 25 and Weymouth Pavilion on Thursday, April 30.

It is 1846, and the little town of Lyme Regis, Dorset is battered by howling winter-gales. Dying and increasingly dependent on laudanum, Mary Anning embarks on a strange dream journey through a life where she challenged the world of men and shook their beliefs to the core.

She is haunted by hallucinations of old friends, enemies and even the dinosaurs she spent her life hacking out of the living rock. Into this world of dreams walks a man she never thought she would see again and attempts to find a resolution to their enigmatic relationship; a play about life and death; frustration and achievement; dreams and memories of long, long ago.

It is said that struck by lightning as a baby, 19th Century fossil hunter, Mary Anning was destined to be special; she went onto rock the world of men, science and belief.

Dorset’s AsOne Theatre is preparing to refresh this gripping story, touring nationally out of its county base to city theatres as well as rural town venues.

*Mary Anning: The Mad Woman of Lyme, Dorchester Corn Exchange, Wednesday, March 25 and Weymouth Pavilion on Thursday, April 30. Call the box office for tickets.