THE PETERSFIELD Shakespeare Festival is set to return this summer and love is definitely in the air.
Themes of disguise and mistaken identity dominate the programme which is packed with comedy, romance – and quite a lot of cross-dressing.
The intimate theatrical festival takes place in the inspiring grounds of Bedales School, next to the 17th Century Sotherington Barn between Monday, July 19, and Friday, July 30.
This year’s centrepiece is a production of Shakespeare’s most elegant comedy, As You Like It.
The production will be directed by Jake Smith and Chris Cuming.
The Comedy of Errors is the bard’s shortest, funniest and most rumbustious comedy. Two sets of identical twins, separated at birth, unknowingly end up in the same city, and through a series of chance meetings their lives and sanity begin to unravel in style.
Merely Theatre will be at Steep for the first time, presenting productions of Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night.
And to cap it all, the festival presents the world premiere of two short, Shakespeare-derived works – The Buried Moon, by Laura Turner and Shakespeare’s Lost Women, by Greg Mosse and John Gleadall.
For performance dates and to book tickets, visit www.petersfieldshakespearefestival.co.uk
Pictured is last year’s production of The Tempest.