Outdoor theatre: 10 of the best summer experiences

• From Times Online, May 28, 2010

• The season of open air performances is upon us, the author’s ten best picks for outdoors theatre this summer

Fiona Mountford

As summer rolls around, it often seems as if every outdoor space, green or otherwise, is playing host to some sort of theatrical venture. Free festivals, such as the Greenwich+ Docklands International and the National’s Watch This Space, grow annually in popularity, while long-established alfresco favourites such as the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park and the Minack in Cornwall revel in increased audience numbers. Such is the appetite for Shakespeare under the stars that the Globe now takes two productions on a summer tour.

Why this demand for the great outdoors? There’s the informality and family-friendliness, and a leisurely picnic and bottle of wine can be incorporated. Rebecca Gatward, the director of the Globe’s touring version of The Comedy of Errors, says, “It’s more like a rock gig.” Here we choose the ten outdoor experiences most likely to rock your summer.

• Peter Pan
• The Dukes, Lancaster

“If you see a puddle, jump in it” sums up Joe Sumsion’s no-nonsense advice to actors in outdoor productions. The artistic director of the Dukes, Lancaster, knows a thing or two about alfresco theatre since the Dukes prides itself on presenting annually the “biggest open-air walkabout theatre event in the UK”. This adaptation of Peter Pan, the 24th such Dukes offering, has been written especially for the picture- perfect setting of Williamson Park. “The audience loves the physical journey of walking through the play,” Sumsion says, and as many as 600 people each night will traverse six locations before encountering the “largest pirate ship I can imagine”.

July 2-Aug 7. Box office: 01524 598500. www.dukes-lancaster.org

• Othello
• Ludlow Castle

“It’s a gorgeous place to work at and a truly epic scale to work on,” Ben Crocker says of Ludlow Castle, where he will be directing Othello as the centrepiece of the 51st Ludlow Festival. “The castle carries with it a huge weight of history and is very suitable for this play, which is set in the citadel in Cyprus.” It is indeed hard to think of a more evocative space for staging Shakespeare than the inner bailey of a castle, which explains why Ludlow has gained such a reputation for these productions down the years.

June 26-July 11. Box office: 01584 872150. www.ludlowfestival.co.uk

• The Tempest
• Oxford Shakespeare Company

Not since he directed a jazz musical version of Alice in Wonderland when he was a student has the acclaimed writer-director Mick Gordon dabbled in outdoor theatre, but he can’t wait to lead the alfresco specialists Oxford Shakespeare Company around a range of historic spaces in Oxford and London. “You’re very aware of the natural elements, very aware of where you are at a given moment that can’t be repeated,” he enthuses. Meteorologically speaking, are they not asking for it with a title like The Tempest? “If it pours down, I imagine the acting company will invite the audience to join them in the pub.”

June 9-Aug 30. Box office: 020-7609 1800/ 01865 305305. www.oxfordshakespearecompany.co.uk

• Toad Hall! and Don Juan in Love
• The Scoop, More London Riverside

There’s something delightful in City Hall in London standing in for Toad Hall in the first of two productions that will play, free, at this 1,000-seat, Greek-style theatre on the banks of the Thames. This is the eighth season of summer theatre at the Scoop and because it’s free and unticketed it encourages the uncertain.

“People come out of curiosity and an hour later they’ve seen Agamemnon,” the director Phil Willmott says proudly. “Outdoors, audiences feel as though they’re sharing in something, rather than being taught something.”

As well as sharing in the perennially delightful adventures of Mole and Ratty, punters this year will also share the pain of the great lothario Don Juan.

Aug 5-Sept 5. www.morelondon.com

• Minack Theatre
• Cornwall

It’s hard to see how any of the 17 shows to be staged in this remarkable auditorium this summer won’t be overwhelmed by the location. Perched dramatically atop a Cornish cliff, the magnificent 750-seat Greek-style theatre has been hosting plays since 1932. “It’s a very romantic venue,” says the theatre manager Phil Jackson. It’s difficult to imagine where else you might pay just £9.50 top price to catch the likes of next week’s offering, Jesus Christ Superstar, complete with a 15-strong orchestra. Plus evening-long sea views.

Season runs until Sept 19. Box office: 01736 810181. www.minack.com

• The Comedy of Errors/ A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Shakespeare’s Globe on tour

“I love the democracy of outdoor theatre, the fact that there are no cheap or expensive seats,” says Rebecca Gatward, the director of The Comedy of Errors. Along with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Errors will take to the road this summer to venues as varied as Old Wardour Castle near Salisbury and Storrs Hall Hotel on the banks of Windermere. These eight-actor productions are a “mini version of your experience at the Globe”, Gatward promises, with an Elizabethan-style playing area that comprises a wooden platform and audiences filling three sides of the space. “As English audiences, we enjoy being in on the joke, we appreciate people making direct contact with us,” Gatward says.

Dream until Aug 28, Errors June 17-Sept 4. Box office: 020-7401 9919. www.shakespeares-globe.org

• For Mountain, Sand & Sea
• Barmouth, North Wales

It’s not often that an entire seaside town becomes the setting for a piece of outdoor theatre, yet this is what the artist Marc Rees has dreamt up for National Theatre Wales. He promises an “immersive excursion” that takes in all of Barmouth. Rees opened up a “‘temporary story shop” in which inhabitants could share their memories, which he passed on to the other artists in the show. “You’re a tourist, but you’ll be among the locals,” he explains. Look out for the “lament for a dead elephant”.

June 25-July 10. Box office: 01766 780667. www.nationaltheatrewales.org

• Greenwich+Docklands
• International Festival 2010

This European-style free festival concentrating on outdoor spectacle continues to expand, stretching over ten days this year. Bradley Hemmings, GDIF’s mastermind, thinks his festival is “with the zeitgeist” for Punchdrunk- style site-specific pieces. This year he’s particularly excited about the “apocalyptic theatre on water” of the French company Ilotopie unfolding at Millwall Outer Dock, and the “combination of gaming and disaster movie” that only 24 people can enjoy at a time in 3rd Ring Out.

June 24-July 4. www.festival.org

• Open Air Theatre
• Regent’s Park

“Sitting there with a glass of Pimm’s in hand, hearing the play sing out among the trees and be carried on the wind across the park seems to me a really delightful way to pass an evening,” says Timothy Sheader, the artistic director of this much-loved Regent’s Park venue. More than 130,000 people annually attend one of the OAT’s four productions, which this year are The Crucible, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth Re-Imagined for Everyone Aged Six and Over and the Sondheim musical Into the Woods. If last year’s fine form continues, the numbers will rise exponentially this season.

Season runs until Sept 11. Box office: 0844 8264242. www.openairtheatre.com

• Watch This Space/ Square 2
• National Theatre

“Many of these shows are about throwing fire at the audience, so I’m lucky to have a great health and safety department,” laughs Angus Mackechnie, the producer of the National’s alfresco frolics. Watch This Space is an ever-expanding Thames- side jamboree of free theatre, dance and circus, while its paid-for sibling Square2 hosts a third year of innovative international offerings. “I have really sensed the value of free work to people,” Mackechnie says. Theatregoers to the National’s indoor spaces have also valued the free work they encounter when they leave. “A couple of years ago, people were coming out of Saint Joan, which has such a bleak ending, and I could see them thinking, ‘Great, all I want is juggling’.”

June 23-Sept 26. Box office: 020-7452 3000. www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/wts