“THE ship is in her trim; the merry wind blows fair from land*” – exactly the message you need as you’ve packed the picnic basket, stowed the chairs in the car, checked your tickets on the phone (?) and set off for an evening in the open air, surrounded by trees and hedgerows, all ready to be entertained by a troupe of versatile actors bringing a favourite story to vivid life.

The summer open air theatre season is half way through, and this year, choices come from 18 companies whose tours will be visiting the south and west … and one welcome return from an amateur company that started its life in 1964 on Brownsea Island and has now re-located to the grounds of Canford School outside Wimborne. Nine of Shakespeare’s plays will be performed, with the perennial favourite A Midsummer Night’s Dream (just the thing for an open air setting) chosen by three companies, as well as two Romeo and Juliet tours and two productions of As You Like It.

Here is a date list of shows, names of plays in sylvan green: companies in bold black.

Romeo and Juliet is the Dukes Theatre 2026 production, coming to Arundells in Salisbury Cathedral Close on 3rd September, Ilfracombe (11th and 12th) and the Redgrave in Bristol on 22nd and 23rd September.

Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors is the Festival Players production for 2026. Its south and west dates continue at Nailsworth on 13th August, Winterbourne near Bristol (14th), Tetbury (15th) and Cotswold Sculpture Park on 20th August.

Folksy Theatre  has chosen A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and its final performance in the south and west is at RHS Rosemoor on 11th August.

The HandleBards Theatre Company production of As You Like It has already moved north. The second 2026 show, Macbeth, continues on Brownsea Island from 27th to 29th August, taking audiences back onto the island in Poole Harbour again, after the sad relocation of Brownsea Open Air Theatre.

 

 

Illyria’s tour of the children’s show Pinocchio comes to Glastonbury on 13th August, and the tour ends in Frome on 6th September.  The company’s  As You Like It will be at Castle Gardens in Sherborne on 16th August, Corfe Castle on 20th, the Merlin ECOS Amphitheatre in Frome on 23rd and Yeo Valley Organic Garden on 26th. The Illyria version of The Three Musketeers continues on 11th August at Exbury, and in September there are performances at Talbot Village on 2nd and Cockington Court on 3rd. The return tour of The Pirates of Penzance continues at The Sherborne on 27th and 28th August, and in September will be at Ebbingford (2nd), Castle Drogo (3rd) Pentillie (10th), Wells (11th), Frome ECOS (12th), Penlee (13th) and at Itchen Valley Country Park on 19th September – the end of the tour.

 

The all-male Lord Chamberlain’s Men have chosen Shakespeare’s Othello for the 2026 tour, and its last performance in the south and west is at Breamore on 21st August.

Cornish-based Miracle Theatre has a new adaptation of Peer Gynt – subtitled A Comedy of Terrors – on tour this summer. The tour continues on 11th August at Hartland Abbey.

The Pantaloons production of  Twelfth Night is at Arlington Court on 26th August, The Lodge at Eggesford on 27th, Ebbingford Manor on 28th and Penlee Park on 29th August.

 

Quantum will be performing The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny on a south and west tour, and Treasure Island from 13th August. Peter Rabbit dates started at Trelissick Garden, and the show returns south on 11th August at Salisbury’s Rifles Museum, 13th at Corfe Castle, 14th at Maumbury Rings, Dorchester, 18th at Windmill Hill City Farm at Bedminster, 26th at Falmouth and on 27th August at Blackwater Cornish Craft Barn. The company’s version of Treasure Island will be at Mawganporth on 13th August, Penlee Park on 14th and at Bedminster Windmill Hill City Farm on 21st.

Rain or Shine, whose performance policy is in the name, has adapted Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers for the summer tour. The company will be at Swanage on 10th August, continuing at Dorchester (16th), Cullompton (19th), Instow (21st), Cirencester (22nd) and at Knackershole Theatre at Dulverton on 25th August.

 

Twelfth Night is always a popular Shakespearean play in the open air, and Sun and Moon Theatre continues the 2026 tour at on Saturday 15th August at Newquay.

 

 

 

 

This Is My Theatre, a company whose shows are usually performed in historic buildings, is touring this summer Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at  the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu on 12th August. The TIMT  adaptation of The Great Gatsby is at  Beaulieu on 13th August and at St Nicholas Church, Freefolk, on 18th.

 

 

 

 

The acting musicians of Three Inch Fools continue touring their original show King Arthur and the Holy Fail from 12th to 22nd August in the south and west.  See them at Stourhead on 12th August, the Bishop’s Palace in Wells on 13th, Combinteignhead on 14th, Dunster Castle on 15th, Ebbingford on 18th, Tapeley Park Bideford (19th), Kimmeridge (20th) and Avebury on 21st and 22nd August.

 

The fourth A Midsummer Night’s Dream of 2026 is from 440 Theatre, and starts on 12th and 13th August in the grounds of Taunton Castle. It continues at Torre Abbey (14th and 15th), Penlee Park (16th), Tapeley Park (18th), Castle Gardens Great Torrington (19th), Scorrier House near Redruth (20th), Falmouth Poly (22nd) and at Coronation Park, Helston on 23rd August.

 

 

Visit the individual company websites to find out more about bookings, timings, seating and weather policies. And be kind to other audience members who, although they may not have arrived quite so early as you, still want to see what’s happening on stage, rather than the sumptuous extravagance of your picnic and its accoutrements.

 

*The quote is from The Comedy of Errors, this year’s Festival Players chosen touring play.