Shakespeare goes outdoors for festival

The Canterbury Shakespeare Festival returns this month with four plays performed at different open air venues around the city.

The community productions are being produced, directed and performed by enthusiastic volunteers from the University of Kent.

Organisers say the outdoor venues encourage family picnics and a more informal feel for audiences to experience Shakespeare.

Creative director Ben Chamberlain said: “William Shakespeare produced work which expresses the human condition in the most profound way. His plays still speak to us four hundred years after his death.

“The talent is local and we strive to achieve a near-professional standard.”

The first, As You Like It, will be staged in the Eliot College courtyard at the University of Kent at 7pm from Friday, July 29, to Sunday, July 31, with an extra 2pm matinee show on the Saturday.

Macbeth, which is a free show, will be performed in the medieval surroundings of the Norman Castle in Castle Street from Monday, August 1, to Wednesday, August 3 and then again from the 8th to the 11th, all at 5pm.

The Greyfriars Gardens in Stour Street will be the venue for The Merchant of Venice at 7pm on Friday, August 5, and Saturday, August 6, with a 2pm show on the Saturday and on Sunday, August 7.

It will be an original take on the play and set in the 1920s.

Twelfth Night will be staged in the gardens of the Canterbury Tales in St Margaret’s Street at 7pm on Friday, August 12, and Saturday, August 13, with 2pm matinees on the Saturday and Sunday. It will feature traditional dress, song and sword fighting.

Tickets cost £12 (£8 concessions) but Macbeth is free to all.

For more information visit http:// www.canterburyshakespeare.co.uk.