The Reader has announced five new open-air theatre productions for summer, as well as a new family show added to the Easter line-up.
Shared Reading charity The Reader has unveiled a new programme of open-air theatre for summer 2025, featuring Jane Austen, Shakespearean favourites, Gilbert and Sullivan and a fun family show.
Five performances will be staged outdoors in one of the city’s hidden historic gems – the art-deco style Garden Theatre in Liverpool’s Calderstones Park following its restoration by the charity and reopening in 2019. Built in 1947 it has hosted everything from performing dogs and ventriloquists to opera and award ceremonies.
The Reader has also announced a special family-friendly indoor Easter production of Alice in Wonderlandwith two showings in the Grade II listed Mansion House Theatre Room on Monday 21 April at 11.50am and 2.45pm.
Liverpool’s Bookworm Players, who mesmerised children with their lovely interactive Christmas show, Cinderella: The Mice’s Tale, will be back with an enchanting and bonkers adaptation based on Lewis Carroll’s classic story.
Family audiences will be asked to guide Alice to safety after she has fallen down a rabbit hole into Wonderland, with help from The Mad Hatter, The Caterpillar, Scouse Cat and playing cards.
The summer season of theatre begins on Thursday 10 July at 7pm with Shakespeare’s hilarious and lyrical romantic comedy Twelfth Night. Award-winning touring theatre company The Lord Chamberlain’s Men are returning with this hugely popular play as the Bard first envisioned it – in the open air, with an all-male cast and Elizabethan-era costumes, music and dance. Expect an evening of romantic confusion, mistaken identity, practical jokes and riotous disorder.
On Friday 1 August at 6.30pm The Handlebards are back in Calderstones Park for a bicycle-powered production of Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing.
This four-strong troupe of actors will be bringing to life the parallel love stories of Beatrice, Benedick, Claudio and Hero. There will be music and manic costume changes a plenty.
The season continues with two performances by another award-winning outdoor theatre company, Illyria, also back in the Mansion House Garden. Their first show will be Gilbert and Sullivan’s timeless comic opera HMS Pinafore, on Thursday 21 August at 7pm.
Sharp dialogue and catchy tunes will be key features of this production which tells the story of captain’s daughter Josephine, who loves Ralph, a common sailor. Her father insists she marries First Lord of the Admiralty Sir Joseph Porter – but must class always get in the way of love?
Illyria’s second visit to Calderstones will be to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday in sparkling style with Pride and Prejudice on Sunday 3 August at 7pm.
Lizzy Bennet finds disdainful Mr Darcy detestable – or does she? Can she see beyond his pride, and can he overcome her prejudice to consider a possible future together?
The season ends with two performances of Pan and the Eternal Wreck by family theatre company and festival favourites The Fabularium on Wednesday 13 August, 11.30am and 2.45pm
The actors, whose Reynard the Fox was a big hit last summer, return with a seafaring adventure where two mariners, from two ancient cultures aboard two storm-riddled shipwrecks, are thrown together to navigate their way through the pandemonium to safe passage.
Mary Crotty, Engagement Manager for The Reader in Calderstones Park, Liverpool, said:
“We are truly excited to be welcoming back six theatre companies to perform at The Mansion House this Easter and for our summer 2025 season.
“Calderstones really is the perfect setting – there is no other outdoor-theatre venue like it! From children’s theatre to Jane Austen and Shakespeare, we invite all the members of our community to come together. We are very lucky to work with such talented theatre makers whose performances enhance our core programme of Shared Reading.
“As a national charity championing Shared Reading based in the heart of Liverpool’s Calderstones Park, we believe passionately in the power of literature, great plays and live performance to inspire creativity, ignite the imagination and to change lives for the better.”
Background: The 1940s art-deco ‘Garden Theatre’
Outdoor theatre in Calderstones Park has its origins in the Holidays at Home scheme during the Second World War, when the local community was invited to enjoy open-air dance, musical and comedy productions.
These performances proved so popular that in 1947, the art-deco style theatre stage was added to the back of the Mansion House, designed by Liverpool’s City Architect Sir Lancelot Keay.
Companies such as Liverpool Theatre Guild, Liverpool Theatre Players, Liverpool Opera Company and Merseyside Unity Theatre all performed at Calderstones before the theatre fell out of use.
The historic stage underwent a huge renovation in 2019 as part of the £5m three-year refurbishment of the Grade II Mansion House when The Reader returned the building to public use.
Audiences will be invited to bring along a picnic blanket or deckchair, feast on freshly made pizzas and grazing boxes and sip drinks from the fully stocked bar under the summer sky. Guests are advised to dress for the weather. Deckchairs are also available to book.
Two free Page to Stage workshops will be running for Twelfth Night and Pride and Prejudice just before the show starts. These extra special Shared Reading sessions will explore a few key extracts from the text.
Tickets are available for public booking from Monday 17 February here.
Priority Booking is now open for Calderstones Members who can save 10% on tickets, plus the first 20 members to book will receive a free glass of fizz. If you are already a Calderstones Member, simply log into your account to apply your discounts. Or, join today to enjoy a year of benefits and discounts.
LISTINGS – WHAT’S ON
- Alice in Wonderland, Theatre Room, The Mansion House, Calderstones Park, Monday 21 April,11.50am and 2.45pm. Book here.
- Twelfth Night, The Mansion House Garden Theatre, Calderstones Park, Thursday 10 July, 7pm. Book here.
- Much Ado About Nothing, The Mansion House Garden Theatre, Calderstones Park, Friday 1 August, 6.30pm. Book here.
- HMS Pinafore, The Mansion House Garden Theatre, Calderstones Park, Thursday 21 August, 7pm. Book here.
- Pride and Prejudice, The Mansion House Garden Theatre, Calderstones Park, on Sunday 3 August, 7pm. Book here.
- Pan and the Eternal Wreck, The Mansion House Garden Theatre, Calderstones Park, Wednesday 13 August, 11.30am and 2.45pm. Book here.
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