“All the world's a stage…”

In the post this morning was the information about this years Ludlow Festival. Ludlow is a lovely little town in Shropshire that once a year hosts a festival centred around performances of an open air Shakespeare play.

This year the play is Twelfth Night and as usual will be presented in the castle grounds.

And so it begins…the open air Shakespeare season!!

We do like our open air Shakespeare. We don’t usually travel far, Nottingham, Ludlow and Stokesay Castle have been about the furthest.

But we don’t have to travel far, there are plenty of local performances.

They are great social events. We usually try and drag some friends and family along and of course there is the obligatory picnic. The different venues have their own specific charms especially on warm summer evenings (we’ve been lucky enough to mostly avoid wet weather).

The first open air Shakespeare I went to was back in the early 90’s at Stafford Castle. A group of us went including two of my sisters (in fact it was probably they who dragged me). The castle venues are great, especially when they use it to great effect as a prop! This performance was no different, a great night.

A couple of years past before I went again, this time with my wife. Driving to Lichfield there were signs on the side of the road advertising an open air Shakespeare. Why not we thought We bought tickets and have never looked back.

It was Shakespeare in the Park which is performed every year in the Italian Garden in the grounds of Maple Hayes Hall near Lichfield. It is one of our favourite open air Shakespeare performances. It takes place in a small clearing surrounded by trees where you sit on hay bails and enjoy a thoroughly entertaining Shakespeare play. This year it is The Merry Wives of Windsor.

There is also usually an open air Shakespeare play as part of the Lichfield Festival but we haven’t been to that in a while. We saw a poor performance once and it put us off. Perhaps we will try again this year.

So full circle now and back to Stafford Castle where the performance this year is The Comedy of Errors. Stafford is always good. There are usually some “big” names performing and with the castle grounds to have a pre-play picnic in, things could not be more perfect…well, a clear, warm summer evening always helps.

We do have one restriction. We don’t do tragedies. This means we usually do Stafford every other year as they seem to alternate. Maple Hayes seem to steer away from tragedies for the most part and for the others we just pick and choose.

Can anyone out there recommend any open air Shakespeare?

Let the plays begin!