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The Review - THEATRE by TOM FOOT
Published: 31 May 2007

Open Air entertainment has a 75-year history

Curtain’s up on the 75th Open Air Theatre season

THE Open Air Theatre, 75 years old this year, opens its summer season with a production of Shakespeare’s most blood-splattered tragedy, Macbeth.
It is a doubly significant season for the Regent’s Park playhouse as the artistic director is stepping down after 25 years.
Tickets for a special one-off gala performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream went on sale for 25p – the price mirroring the first-ever ticket price of five shillings – and sold out in hours. The event will be attended by HRH, The Duke of Kent and a host of celebrities including patron Judi Dench.
The theatre is celebrating this special year with an extended programme including two Shakespeare productions, two musicals, a children’s production, a variety of Sunday concerts and a selection of small-scale comedies, drama and music.
Edward Kemp – who wrote 5/11 and The Master and Margarita for Chichester Festival Theatre – takes the helm for Macbeth from June 4. Shakespeare’s mystical story of power, greed and prophecy has not been performed at the theatre for 15 years.
Christopher Luscombe, who directed the well-received Comedy of Errors at the Globe last year, directs A Midsummer Night’s Dream from June 8.
Ian Talbot directs two musicals: Gershwin’s Lady Be Good, opening in July, and last year’s smash hit The Boy Friend, opening in August for a three week run.
Renowned children’s playwright David Wood is returning in August to direct his adaptation for the stage of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox.
The Sunday concerts include comedy from Daniel Kitson (10 June), Ed Byrne (17 June), Jimmy Carr (24 June) and The Comedy Store Players (22 July) finished off with Mercury Music nominee Seth Lakeman (5 August) for folk music under the stars.
The park’s summer plays has been one of the events of the theatrical calendar since 1932 – don’t forget to bring a rug!

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