Preview: Stamford Shakespeare 2009 season at Tolethorpe Hall
Enjoy the summer weather by taking in one of the first performances from the Stamford Shakespeare Company's summer programme which starts this week (from 8 June).
Enjoy the summer weather by taking in one of the first performances from the Stamford Shakespeare Company's summer
programme which starts this week (from 8 June). Beginning on Monday (8 June), it's a week of Oliver Twist, so don't forget to book your seat in the beautiful outdoor amphitheatre at Tolethorpe Hall.
The production comes ahead of the two Shakespeare plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream, which opens on June 16, and The Tempest, which follows on July 7.
Jeremy Brock's stage adaptation of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist is splendidly theatrical and will delight older children and adults alike.
The company has a tradition of performing a non-Shakespeare play during the summer – and Oliver Twist looks set to be a popular choice.
It combines all the richness of Dickens's story – the sinister antics of Fagin, the comic pomposity of Mr Bumble the beadle and the horror of Nancy's murder at the hands of Sikes – with a thoroughly up-to-date
dramatic pace and style.
Tickets for all four Saturday matine performances have sold out, but they are still on sale for the nightly 8pm shows.
If you haven't been to a Rutland Open Air Theatre play before, then you will be amazed by the fabulous garden overlooking classic English parkland.
It's just a few minutes off the A1 near Stamford, and nestled in the grounds of the Elizabethan Tolethorpe Hall.
The 600-seat open-air theatre has a permanent covered auditorium, which means no performance is ever cancelled because of rain.
It was described by the Stage newspaper as England's premier alfresco venue, and is recognised as one of the finest open-air theatres in Europe offering the comfort of an indoor theatre in an outdoor setting.
It's for this reason that more than 33,000 people visit the theatre each summer.
Handy facilities include an on-site car park, a popular picnic area on the lawn, in the hall, a theatre bar adjacent to a spacious orangery, and a 90-seat restaurant enjoyed by theatregoers every summer.
Throughout the summer months, and after the first week of Oliver Twist, the company offers two Shakespeare plays – A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest.
Follow the spiteful antics of the fairies, who thwart and confound the two pairs of lovers and lead the band of inept mechanicals into total disarray in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Then The Tempest is a magical mystical tale of a remote island, shipwrecks and lost kingdoms of spirits and monsters.
Tickets are available from the 01780 756133 or www.stamfordshakespeare.co.uk.
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