“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 fast approaching, 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, with companies in alphabetical order – names of plays in sylvan green: companies in bold black.

Romeo and Juliet is the Dukes Theatre 2026 production, coming to The Master Builders at Bucklers Hard on 7th June, and touring until 23rd September, stopping at Bowood House (10 June), Highcliffe Castle (11), Torre Abbey (12/13), the Minack (15-19), Bude (20), Hartland Abbey (21), Kingston Lacy (24) and at Arundells Salisbury on 3rd September, Ilfracombe (11/12) and the Redgrave in Bristol on 22 and 23 September.

Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors is the Festival Players production for 2026, and its south and west dates start on 13th June at Shaftesbury Abbey. The tour also stops at Bristol on 25th and Tiverton on 28th June. In July it is at Lamyatt (4th), Kingsclere (5th), Stroud (9th), St Austell (10th), Bideford (11th), Gloucester (28th/29th), and Stroud Museum on 31st. August dates include Powderham Castle (5th), Penlee Penzance (6th), Nailsworth (13th), Winterbourne near Bristol (14th), Tetbury (15th) and Cotswold Sculpture Park on 20th August.

Folksy Theatre has 11 stops in the south and west with its 2026 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, starting on 28th July at Forde Abbey near Chard. The tour continues to Marwood Hill Gardens near Barnstaple (29th) and Burrow Farm Gardens Axminster on 30th and 31st July. In August Folksy’s Dream is at Devauden Hall in Bristol (1st), Hestercombe Gardens (2nd), Lyme Regis Marine (4th), Watermouth Harbour Ilfracombe (5th), Cannington Walled Garden (6th), Frome ECOS Amphitheatre (8th), Holme for Gardens near Wareham (9th and RHS Rosemoor on 11th.

The HandleBards Theatre Company makes an entrance at every venue, as the actors cycle from performance to performance, setting up the stage and shedding the cycle clips before donning their costumes. This year the company has two Shakespeare tours, with Macbeth and As You Like It. The first stop in the south west region is with As You Like It on 7th June at Chawton House, and the production will be wheeled round to Minstead (11-13), Lyme Regis (18), Wells (20), Bristol (21) and ending at Painswick on 25th June.  The dates for the Scottish play start at Winchester on 28th June, stopping at Lyme Regis on 2nd July, Bude (5), Hartland Abbey (7), Lamyatt near Bruton (9), Minstead (16/17) and on Brownsea Island from 27th to 29th August.

Illyria brings the children’s show Pinocchio to Penzance on 23rd May. The tour stops at venues near Okehampton, Breamore, Dorchester, The Minack, Sherborne, Bude, Torquay, Exeter, Southampton, Corfe, Wimborne and Glastonbury, and the tour ends in Frome on 6th September. As with all these tours, visit the company websites for full details. The Illyria production of As You Like It comes south for the first of its regional performances on 3rd July at Penlee Penzance. The tour stops at Yelverton (4th), Torquay (5th), Fowey (7th), Ebbingford (8th) and Highcliffe Castle on 23rd July. In August it is at Castle Gardens in Sherborne on 16th, Corfe Castle on 20th, the Merlin ECOS Amphitheatre in Frome on 23rd and Yeo Valley Organic Garden on 26th. The company also tours two more productions this summer – The Three Musketeers and The Pirates of Penzance (making a welcome return). The Musketeers adventure starts in the south west on 13th June at Penlee Park, stopping at Combinteignhead (14th), before July dates at Steeple Langford (4th), the new venue at The Sherborne on 8th and 9th, Durley on 19th and Corsley on 25th. In August the show is at Exbury on 11th, and in September there are performances at Talbot Village on 2nd and Cockington Court on 3rd.  The Pirates starts its regional journey at Killerton on 17th July, stopping at Maumbury Rings on 18th and Yelverton on 19th, and at Arlington Court on 21st. It is at The Sherborne on 27th and 28th August, and in September 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.

Immersion Theatre has chosen Kipling’s The Jungle Book, for this year’s tour, starting on 27th June at Athelhampton House, and scheduled at Mottisfont Abbey on 29th July, Lydiard Park in Swindon on 2nd August, Castle Drogo on 6th and Torre Abbey at Torquay on 7th August. There are performances of the company’s production of Romeo and Juliet at Mottisfont Abbey on 10th July, Athelhampton House on 11th and at Lydiard Park in Swindon on 25th July.

The all-male Lord Chamberlain’s Men have chosen Shakespeare’s Othello for the 2026 tour, and it comes to Glastonbury Abbey on June 5th, Bath American Museum (12th), Salisbury Cathedral Close (26/27), Kingston Lacy (16/17 July), Killerton House (21), Dartington Hall (22), Dyrham Park (24/25) and Breamore on 21st August.

Cornish-based Miracle Theatre has a new adaptation of Peer Gynt – subtitled A Comedy of Terrors – on tour this summer. After four days at The Minack Theatre from 8th to 11th June, the tour will stop at Frome’s ECOS amphitheatre on 23rd June and Marlborough on 24th. On 24th July it will be performed at Chagford, on 5th August at Ibberton, 6th August at Sandford Orcas and 11th August at Hartland Abbey.

The Pantaloons Hound of the Baskervilles will be performed indoors from 14th May to 10th June. Holmes and Watson will be hunting the Devon creature inside at Clearbook on Dartmoor on 14th May, Ivybridge on 15th and Watchet on 16th May and in Andover on 5th June, New Milton on 6th and Exeter on 10th June. The show will be alfresco on 3rd June at Avington, 25th at Wells and 26th at Tetbury, at Bath on 17th July, Barrington Court on 18th and Mottisfont on 23rd July. The (almost) Complete History of Britain starts in the open air at Beaminster Festival on 7th June, continuing at Highcliffe on 25th June, Barrington Court on 3rd July, Langport (4th), Swindon (5th) Glastonbury (23rd), Bideford (24th), Holsworthy (25th) and Bude on 26th July.The company’s 2026 Shakespeare is Twelfth Night, outdoorsa t 7th August at Montacute House, Arlington Court on 26th August, The Lodge at Eggesford on 27th. Ebbingford Manor on 28th and Penlee Park on 29th August.

Plandits Theatre tours The Big Bad Wolf this July, coming south on 5th to Maumbury Rings, 19th to the Bath Garden Theatre Festival and on 24th July to the Bishop’s Palace in Wells.

Quantum will be performing The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny on a south and west tour from 18th July, and Treasure Island from 13th August. Peter Rabbit dates start 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, and it comes to 14 venues across the south and west, staring at Bideford on 19th June. Later in the month they will be at Holsworthy (20th), Rockbourne (21st), Badgworth (25th) and Bishops Waltham (28th). In July there are performances at Salisbury (3rd), East Knoyle (24th) and East Holme near Wareham on 25th. On 10th August they are at Swanage, and the month’s stops continue at Dorchester (16th), Cullompton (19th), Instow (21st), Cirencester (22nd) and at Knackershole Theatre at Dulverton on 25th August.

This summer The Rude Mechanicals bring another original play, The Wife, to seven venues, starting at the Square and Compass at Worth Matravers, and travelling along the coast to Abbotsbury on 20th June. On 2nd July they will be at Bradford Abbas, then at Baltonsborough (3rd) and Stourpaine (4th), Stogursey on 24th and Child Okeford on 25th July.

Twelfth Night is always a popular Shakespearean play in the open air, and Sun and Moon Theatre will be bringing it to ten venues across the south and west, starting at Poltimore House on Thursday 25th June. The tour continues to Penlee Penzance on 26th and Crediton on 27th. July dates begin on 3rd at Redruth, followed by Bodmin on 5th, Dulverton on 127th, Appledore on 18th, Exeter from 30th July to 2nd August (as part of the Theatre in the Park Festival), and ending on Saturday 15th August at Newquay.

The Last Baguette brings Pie-Rat Island – A Journey on the High Seas for 2 to 6 year olds and their grown-ups – to Portsmouth Guildhall Square on 8th May, visiting Weston Super Mare, Bristol, Stroud, Tetbury, Corsham, Clevedon and Trowbridge at various day times until 21st May.

 

This Is My Theatre, a company whose shows are usually performed in historic buildings, is touring this summer with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, at St George’s, Reforne on Portland on 10th June and at the Medieval Hall in Salisbury on 11th June. The company’s second tour is of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at Salisbury on 11th July and Calne on 28th, at Forde Abbey on 7th August, Nothe Fort at Weymouth on 9th and at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu on 12th August. The third TIMT production, an adaptation of The Great Gatsby, is at Swindon on 12th July, Maumbury Rings in Dorchester on 30th and Salisbury Cathedral Arundells on 31st July. August performances are at Bowood House (1st), Beaulieu (13th) and at St Nicholas Church, Freefolk, on 18th.

 

The acting musicians of Three Inch Fools are touring their original show King Arthur and the Holy Fail from 4th to 10th June and again from 12th to 22nd August in the south and west. They open at Highcliffe Castle, stopping at Bath ( 5th) Killerton (6th), Pentillie Castle (7th) and Glastonbury Abbey on 10th June. See them at Stourhead on 12th August, Wells on 13th, Combinteignhead on 14th, Dunster on 15th, Ebbingford on 18th and Avebury on 21st and 22nd August.

The fourth A Midsummer Night’s Dream 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.

Brownsea Open Air Theatre (on land), best known to loyal supporters as BOAT,  will perform The Tempest in the grounds of Canford School outside Wimborne from 3rd to 15th 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.