The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival’s annual season of picnics, plays and period costumes is under way at various Cambridge colleges.

The festival is a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike, with around 25,000 people expected this year to see some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Performances take place every evening until late August, excluding Sundays.

An evening at the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is a unique experience. Prior to the performance, members of the audience can picnic in an idyllic setting, before sitting back to enjoy an evening of dynamic and highly visual theatre. The Festival prides itself on an artistic policy which strips away unnecessary theatrical artifice and gimmickry, and the Company exists to provide access for all without assuming any prior knowledge of the author or the play in question.

The productions themselves are vivid and spectacular, and are performed in period costume with live Elizabethan music.

Emmanuel College's Queen's Theatre plays host to indoor performances of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ until 30 July, and then ‘Measure For Measure’ from 1 to 20 August.

All the other plays will be performed outside in college gardens. Until 30 July, Trinity College is the setting for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, while St John’s College hosts ‘As You Like It’ and Girton College has ‘The Tempest’.

‘The Taming Of The Shrew’ comes to Girton College from 1 to 27 August, King’s College hosts performances of ‘Romeo And Juliet’ from 1 to 20 August, and ‘Macbeth’ will be at Downing College from 1 to 20 August.

Each performance starts at 7.30pm and tickets can either be purchased on the door or in advance from the City Centre Box Office on Wheeler Street, Cambridge (01223 357851). Tickets cost £12 (£9 for students, OAPs, under 17s, the unemployed and people with disabilities).

For more information, visit www.cambridgeshakespeare.com, email info@cambridgeshakespeare.com or call 01223 511139.


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