"OF MAN'S first disobedience, and the fruit, Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste, Brought death into the World, and all our woe..."

John Milton's Paradise Lost is widely recognised as the first great original work of English literature.

But though it undoubtedly contains some of poetry's best-known lines the work itself can prove less than accessible.

Quite apart from the uncommon challenge of reading an extremely long narrative poem, the reader is assumed to have the same intimate knowledge of scripture as Milton and his 17th-century audience.

But the subject matter - the fall of the angel Satan from Heaven, and his subsequent corruption of Adam and Eve - remains as compelling as ever.

Bristol Old Vic opens its new season tonight with a dramatic adaptation of Paradise Lost which promises to bring Milton's great poem into the 21st century.

Commissioned by the National Theatre, currently staging its own adaptation of the Milton-inspired His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, Paradise Lost is adapted and directed by the Old Vic's artistic director David Farr.

The imagery and immense scope of the work is brought to the stage by an innovative mix of music, film, and aerial photography.

Designed by Ti Green, the play moves from the subterranean world of the defeated and damned refugees from heaven to the delicate emerging greens of Eden.

Satan is played by Stephen Noonan, critically acclaimed as Hamlet last year in Southampton. He will be joined by Kananu Kirimi as Eve, Old Vic veteran Christopher Staines as Adam, Simon Scardifield as Beelzebub and Dave Fishley as Death.

Paradise Lost runs until February 21 at Bristol Old Vic. Tickets range from £5 to £20 and are available from the box office on 0117 987 7877. And remember, as Milton wrote: "The mind is its own place, and in itself, Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."