I love outdoor theatre in the summer. It just feels like such a grown up and elegant thing to do, taking a comfortable chair, blanket and a picnic to a lovely location (and praying for good weather!!).
I also love Jane Austen, so when I got the chance at some tickets for a press preview of Pride and Prejudice by Chapterhouse Theatre at Breezy Knees Gardens near York, I jumped at the chance!
I haven’t visited Breezy Knees before (it’s just a seven minute drive from the Grimston Bar roundabout) but we had the option to look around in the hour before the performance started. I decided that I would rather sit and eat my picnic and return for a proper visit another time to do it justice (there are 20 acres of gardens!).
Pride and Prejudice was brilliant. They followed the story pretty faithfully especially given the time constraints. It was light and funny with some excellent characters. We loved the awful Caroline Bingley and an initially somewhat grumpy Mr Darcy!
The costumes were great, the stage was raised so we had a good view and we could hear everything. To top it off, it was lovely and sunny, and a perfect way to spend a summer’s evening!
If you are sad to have missed out, you could go along to Knaresborough Castle on the Saturday 17th August to see Little Women. Also check out the Chapterhouse website for other venues if you are going further afield this summer.
If you haven’t been to an outdoor theatre performance before, you will want to know the drill. You can take low backed chairs – I would say they don’t have to be terribly low backed, just be considerate of other people being able to see. You are also welcome to take a picnic – which I think is a big part of the experience. There were a few corks flying around too!
Also, make sure you wear or take warm clothes and a blanket. I took a sherpa fleece and was very toasty but the ladies in front of us were clearly very cold, even though the weather itself was good – you still feel it after a couple of hours.
We attended as press, as always all the opinions expressed are my own.
You can see other outdoor theatre and cinema productions this summer here.
