Open-air theatre in Liverpool City Region for summer 2025

Pop the corks, dig out those picnic chairs and grab on the sunscreen because the open-air theatre season is upon us.

Performances are planned in parks, gardens and other outdoor spaces over the next few months, promising to entertain outdoor audiences old and young.

And with 2025 being the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen, this year’s offering includes a chance to indulge in the world of the Bennets, Mr Darcy and the Dashwoods.

This summer Liverpool and the wider City Region is welcoming a host of popular returning theatrical troupes including The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Illyria, The Handlebards and Folksy Theatre.

In addition, Wirral’s Off the Ground theatre is touring to multiple venues - including St Luke’s Bombed Out Church – with a new production of Robert Louis Stephenson’s Treasure Island.

And there’s a busy programme planned in the Sir Ken Dodd Performance Garden at Shakespeare North Playhouse at Prescot.

Here’s a rundown of what you can see where in Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, Wirral and further afield over summer 2025.

Speke Hall

A trio of shows come to the North Lawn at Speke Hall this summer.

On Friday, July 20 the Three Inch Fools visit Speke with The Most Perilous Comedie of Elizabeth I.

Elizabeth I is renowned for her dazzling intellect, steely resolve and a flair for diplomacy that has kept her kingdom united. Yett beneath the ruffs and regalia lies a monarch with a taste for the arts and a penchant for the dramatic.

But will a brand-new Tudor musical romp, in which Good Queen Bess takes to the stage herself, be the making of this heroine or spell the beginning of her downfall?

Then on Wednesday, July 23, love, heartbreak and social scandal are the order of the day when The Pantaloons return to the North Lawn with their own take on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.

And the travelling theatre company arrives with a second, very merry, production on Sunday, August 3. Feared by the bad, loved by the good, of course it’s Robin Hood – in a new adventure for the legendary longbowman of Sherwood Forest and his fearless gang of fellow outlaws.

Full details and booking HERE

Garden Theatre at Calderstones

There’s much ado this summer in the brilliant Art Deco Garden Theatre at Calderstones Mansion.

Audiences are invited to bring a chair, while food – including freshly-made pizzas - and drinks are available on site.

The season opens on July 10 when the Lord Chamberlain’s Men return (after last year’s production of Hamlet) to present Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on the Garden Theatre stage.

Expect and all-male cast, and Elizabethan costumes, music and dancing.

Then on August 1, cycling theatre troupe The Handlebards peddle into the park to present the Bard’s much-loved comedy Much Ado About Nothing.

The summer season continues on August 3 with another return, this time for the award-winning Illyria theatre company, which celebrates Austen’s 250th anniversary with her best-loved tale Pride and Prejudice.

Peter Pan flies into the park on August 13 courtesy of family theatre company, and festival favourite, The Fabularium. Young audiences and their families will love their new story, Peter Pan and the Eternal Wreck.

And Illyria pays a second visit to Calderstones on August 21 with Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic operetta HMS Pinafore.

Full details and booking HERE

Sir Ken Dodd Performance Garden, Shakespeare North Playhouse at Prescot

There’s another packed programme of performances planned for the Ken Dodd Performance Garden between now and September.

Cream-Faced Loons Theatre Company, known as The Loons, returns to Shakespeare North on May 27 to present Beanstalk! – a tall tale stuffed with music, magic and mischief.

Nick Bagnall directs Jim Cartwright Drama Studio’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on May 29-31. Expect clod hoppers and fairies, gossamer wings and Donkey jackets and twinkle toes and wellies in this special version of the Bard’s enchanted tale.

Boaty Theatre Company performs Much Ado About Nothing in the garden on June 11-12, a bold reimagining of the Bard’s comedy set in the final years of Mrs Thatcher’s time at No 10.

ShakeItUp Theatre entertains with The Improvised Shakespeare Show on June 17, and on June 25 Prescot Festival of Music and the Arts presents Afternoon Opera: Solos and Soliloquies.

The summer season continues with Oddsocks Productions’ high energy A Midsummer Night’s Dream on June 27-28.

And Festival Players International embark for the Forest of Arden in As You Like It on July 16.

Multi-award-winning A Place for Us Theatre follows last year’s sold-out Macbeth with another dynamic and visceral Shakespearean tragedy for 2025 – this time it’s a hard-hitting Romeo and Juliet.

The Pantaloons also return to Prescot for 2025 where they will stage Hamlet on August 1-2 while grab a set on August 7-9 as Shake-Scene Theatre enjoy a mini-residency where its actors will perform Measure for Measure AND Julius Caesar.

A Place for Us is back for a second visit on August 12-13 with Saving Shakespeare in which the Bard arrives at the Royal Court to stage his latest play only to discover the actors haven’t been booked, the script has been left behind and the only people available to help are two women (and women aren’t allowed to perform on stage).

Hansel and Gretel are the subject of Wrongsemble’s family show Breadcrumbs on August 15-16, and Gemma Bond performs Pirate Princess on August 20.

Rubbish Theatre Company and Silly History Boys join forces for The Story Forge: Make Your Own Myth on August 26-27.

And finally, Folksy Theatre brings Twelfth Night to the venue on August 29 and its new production of Robin Hood on August 30.

Full details and booking HERE

Knowsley Hall

The Lord Chamberlain’s Men pay their much-anticipated annual visit to the grounds of Knowsley Hall on July 9 - this time with Shakespeare’s tragi-comic masterpiece Twelfth Night.

The performance is given by the travelling troupe’s all male cast dressed in traditional Elizabethan costumes.

It’s July, but you may want to dress for all eventualities – although yellow cross-gartered stockings are optional.

Full details and booking HERE

Crosby Hall

Award-winning outdoor theatre company Illyria returns to Crosby Hall in July with a rollicking version of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Falstaff is skint. He attempts to seduce two merchants’ wives hoping to relieve them of money. But when Mistress Page and Mistress Ford receive identical love letters, they vow to teach him a lesson he’ll never forget!

Catch Shakespeare’s cheeky comedy on July 12.

Full details and booking HERE

Claremont Farm

Wirral’s Off the Ground theatre company is celebrating its 30th birthday in 2025, and it’s on tour again for the summer with a stop at Claremont Farm on July 17 with its new swashbuckling production of Treasure Island.

Hot on its heels, those busy folk at Illyria arrive at Claremont Farm on July 31 with their touring production of Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice.

The story is adapted by Oliver Gray and promises to be a sparkling 250th birthday celebration,

And then Illyria returns on August 28 with its stage adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic tale The Wind in the Willows.

Mole yearns to explore the wide world. Badger enjoys peace and quiet. Rat likes just messing about in boats.

But their idyllic lives on the Riverbank are turned upside down when Toad reveals his latest obsession: a motor car!

Full details and booking for Treasure Island HERE Pride and Prejudice HERE AND The Wind in the Willows HERE

The Dell at Port Sunlight

Folksy Theatre, which specialises in touring to rural areas across the UK, makes its annual popular visit to Port Sunlight in August.

This year the company presents Twelfth Night in The Dell on August 21, promising a whirlwind of mistaken identities and joyful endings.

Full details and booking HERE

Royden Park

Head to the high seas (in the park) for some hearty laughs courtesy of West Kirby-based Off the Ground theatre company which presents its original version of the swashbuckling classic on August 1-2.

And then return from August 23-28 for the annual performances in the park by the Hillbark Players.

This year the company is set to present that great Shakespearean story of star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet.

Full details and booking for Treasure Island HERE

Full details and booking for Romeo and Juliet HERE

And a bit further afield…..

Norton Priory, Runcorn

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that an open-air theatre audience must be in search of an entertaining afternoon or evening in the outdoors.

So hurrah for Illyria which arrives at Norton Priory on June 25 with its sparkling production of Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice.

Hot on its heels is Romeo and Juliet in the woods, the bold new production coming courtesy of multi-award winning, Halton-based A Place for Us Theatre. It will run in repertory with the company’s Macbeth on June 27-28.

Immersion Theatre presents an open-air musical extravaganza production of The Wind in the Willows on July 6, and then returns on August 24 with Shakespeare’s supernatural story The Tempest.

Full details and booking HERE

Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester

Grosvenor Park is offering two very different shows in its open-air auditorium for summer 2025.

First up, there’s a return for Deborah McAndrews’ witty and acclaimed adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, directed by Conrad Nelson and which entertained Grosvenor Park audiences in 2021.

Expect sparkling dialogue, music and dancing courtesy of Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy et al.

And then modern-day Chester is the setting for Molly Taylor’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective fiction and directed by Ellie Hurt.

Holmes and his trusty right hand man Dr Watson are drawn into their most intriguing and personal mystery yet. Catch them from July 18 to August 31.

Full details and booking HERE