Far From the Madding Crowd, New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme
New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme: The New Vic's artistic director, Theresa Heskins, always relishes a challenge. By her own admission she likes to "stage the unstageable". Well, any production in the round that attempts to convincingly portray fire, rain, countryside gallops and assorted farmyard animals during the course of its storytelling is certainly aiming high. In fact, the stakes are raised to seem…