TIMES have moved on since the Victorian era of Anthony Trollope but how far have our ideas of who our daughters should marry really come?

Woman are still forced to wed men they don’t love and children feel the pressure of their parents expectations, whether they are spoken aloud or not.

“We are still very obsessed with class in the UK," says Tufnell Park actress Antonia Kinlay, who is starring at Park Theatre in Lady Ann: All at Sea.

“We still have these visions of who we’re meant to marry or who our family think we’re meant to marry and that we shouldn’t marry beneath us.

“Even if it’s not class, there’s usually something within families that they expect of you and you might see your life in a different way and that’s the core of what this play is about.”

The adaptation was commissioned by the Trollope Society as part of the Trollope Bicentennial Celebrations and is based on his novel Lady Anna, about a woman in the 1830s fighting to marry the man she loves, a tailors son, instead of the man her mother wants her to, a wealthy earl. Trollope wrote it entirely at sea as he travelled with his wife to see his son in Australia and it caused quite the scandal in 1870s society.

Playwright Craig Baxter has intersected the original story with his imagined version of that voyage, exploring how Trollope may have been influenced by the people around him on the ship.

Antonia who has been learning her lines while striding across Hampstead Heath with her sausage dog says: “Trollope wrote really strong female characters and Anna is great to play because she is so determined and headstrong and knows what she wants and is willing to fight for it, it’s a joy to play.”

The 20-something actress who is unmarried herself says she can relate to the character: “I think we have all been there and had that fight. Any daughter knows that mother/daughter relationships can be tricky, we have all experienced that when we were younger. Here it's taken to its utmost extremity as there are incredibly high stakes for everyone involved.”

The seven-strong cast, who have been rehearsing at Out of Joint theatre company just down the road in Finsbury Park, play a character from each storyline, with Antonia lacing up a corset and coiffing her hair to switch between portraying Anna and Trollope’s maid Isabella.

“Isabella is a strong character who is interested in reading what Trollope is writing and keeps trying to find out what the novel is about even though it is above her station to do that. And Craig uses that to influence how Trollope might have written Anna.”

The RADA graduate, who grew up on the Welsh border and went to school in Bristol moved to London ten years ago and has appeared on stage most recently in The Three Lions at St James Theatre. She says playwright Craig has done a wonderful job of merging Trollope’s distinctive flowery language with a 21st Century flavour and the cast have added lots of humour into the scenes on board the ship.

“We try and keep the play moving at a very fast pace and swap very quickly between the scenes and in rehearsals that can feel painful but already those changes are happening very quickly and hopefully that will be some of the joy of watching it as well, that it moves so quickly between time zones.”

Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, August 19 to September 19. Details: 020 7870 6876, parktheatre.co.uk