Open Air Theatre at Wollaton Hall

About

Open Air Theatre
Wollaton Hall and Deer Park
Dates between Thursday 16 June and Thursday 01 September 2022

A fantastic season of open air theatre performances awaits this summer. The manicured gardens and beautiful ruins of Newstead Abbey, and the spectacular Elizabethan mansion and park at Wollaton are once again offering a range of theatre performances to delight all ages.

The Wollaton season starts a little bit later than Newstead with The Gunpowder Plot (Thurs 16 June), also offering a mix of performances to delight children and adults alike with Awful Auntie paying a visit as well as Cinderella, and Shakespeare classics including A Midsummer Night's Dream.

• Thursday 16 June: The Gunpowder Plot: The Three Inch Fools
• Thursday 07 July :  As You Like It: (The Lord Chamberlain’s Men)
• Sunday 17 July: Awful Auntie (Heartbreak Productions)
• Tuesday 19 July: Romeo & Juliet (Chapterhouse Theatre Company)
• Wednesday 03 August: Cinderella (Chapterhouse Theatre Company)
• Thursday 01 September: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ilyria)

To book, either use the Book Now button above or you can click the individually listed event below:

Full listings

Thursday 16 June: The Gunpowder Plot: The Three Inch Fools
The Three Inch Fools hit the road with a bang. Cue an explosive evening of short fuses and tall tales, as five  actors try to pull off the most infamous conspiracy in history. This summer, touring the UK, The Gunpowder Plot comes to life in a brand new, calamitous production fit 
for all the family. Expect uproarious intrigue, endless costume changes, and many, many false moustaches 
in this highly flammable historical tale.
Book The Gunpowder Plot

Thursday 07 July :  As You Like It: (The Lord Chamberlain’s Men)
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men - with a history stretching back to William Shakespeare himself - invite you to join them this summer for the sparkling comedy, As You Like It. One of the UK’s finest touring theatre companies present this great play as Shakespeare first saw it performed - in the open air, by an all male cast and with Elizabethan costumes, music and dance.
Book As You Like it (External source)

Sunday 17 July: Awful Auntie (Heartbreak Productions)
Awful Auntie by David Walliams, adapted for the outdoor stage by Heartbreak Productions, is a truly thrilling tale. Owls, ghosts, chases, escapes, motorcycle rides, and tiddlywinks all fill Stella’s days as she evades her menacing Aunt and saves the family home. So, please join us at the dedication of the new playground at Saxby Hall and hear how it all came about. Make sure you bring a blanket or chair to sit on, weather-appropriate gear, and a picnic, as the tale could take some time to tell, and storytelling can be hungry work!

The new playground at the Saxby Hall Orphanage is finally complete, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you. The orphanage was founded by Stella Saxby, who some of you may remember. Her parents were killed in a car crash in 1933, leaving her an orphan, all alone with her Awful Auntie. And when we say awful, we mean awful. Aunt Alberta and her best friend Wagner, a vicious Bavarian owl, tried everything they could to torment Stella into signing over the deed to Saxby Hall. But Stella, with the help of her friend Soot (the ghost of a chimney sweep, but friends come in all shapes and sizes, don’t they?) fought off Aunt Alberta, saved Saxby Hall, and gifted the beautiful Saxby Hall to be used as an orphanage.
Book Awful Auntie

Tuesday 19 July: Romeo & Juliet (Chapterhouse Theatre Company)
Hapterhouse Theatre Company presents this best loved story of star crossed lovers and feuding families shall be performed in the gardens of some of the UK and Ireland’s most glorious country houses throughout the summer and promises to be one of the most sought after events of the open air season. Dressed in beautiful Elizabethan costume and performed by a fine troupe of Shakespearean players join Chapterhouse for the greatest love story ever told as we perform magical theatre in magical surroundings.
Book Romeo and Juliet

Wednesday 03 August: Cinderella (Chapterhouse Theatre Company)Chapterhouse Theatre Company presents Cinderella. In an enchanted kingdom in a faraway land magical creatures and fairy godmothers come together to tell the best loved of all fairytales. Full of song, mirth, and joy for the summer ahead, join us on Cinderella’s journey of a lifetime to a magical ball where nearly anything is possible especially if it is before midnight. 

Family and friends are welcome to picnic in the grounds in some of the most beautiful gardens in the UK and Ireland. Children old and young alike are invited to dress in their favourite fairy tale characters and join for the midsummer ball dance.
Book Cinderella

Thursday 01 September: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ilyria
)Five couples – three human, one fairy, and one mythical – find their relationships sorely tested, intimately probed and indecently exposed when a troupe of amateur theatricals bumble into the forest to rehearse a play. 

Shakespeare’s timeless comic masterpiece explores every colour in the spectrum of love, from arranged marriage to elopement, from infatuation to hatred, from chivalric devotion to raw sex.  Add to this bawdy mix a heady brew of confusion, magic and mischief, and you have the most perfectly frothy comedy for a moonlit summer evening.  
Book A Midsummer Night's Dream