thinking of a summer of alfresco fun – and of course that includes packing up a picnic and heading for the grounds of a stately pile to watch a play. In these days of TV cookery shows and ever more inventive supermarket snacks, it has become almost as much about the picnic and drinks as the drama and comedy. The critical thing to remember is that “we dry”, and as long as you can protect the food from the rain, you can sit it out no matter what the weather gods throw at us.
This summer, 15 touring theatre companies will be stopping off in Dorset, and one beloved home-grown company, Brownsea Open Air Theatre, makes a landlocked comeback in the grounds of Canford School near Wimborne with The Tempest. BOAT was founded in 1964 by Dorset’s Joyce Caton to celebrate the Shakespeare Quatercentenary, and continued to produce plays on Brownsea Island until the National Trust, beneficiaries of the company’s annual income, decided to cancel the arrangement. So it’s welcome back to the BOAT regulars from 3rd to 15th August.
Earlier in the season, nine of the annual tours will be stopping off in Dorset in June, starting with Three Inch Fools, musician-actors who will bring King Arthur and the Holy Fail to Highcliffe Castle on 4th June, and return to Stourhead House on 12th August.
Next come the Pantaloons, with The (almost) Complete History of Britain, at Beaminster for the festival on 7th June, and at Highcliffe Castle on 25th July.
Newcomer This is My Theatre has three shows on tour this summer. The ever-popular A Midsummer Night’s Dream is at St George’s, Reforne on Portland on 10th June. Then there is The Great Gatsby in the evocative setting of Maumbury Rings on 30th July, and two chances to see Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, at Forde Abbey near Chard on 7th August and at Nothe Fort in Weymouth two nights later.
Duke’s Theatre brings Romeo and Juliet to Highcliffe Castle on 11th June and to Kingston Lacy on 24th.
Illyria has four shows on tour in 2026, and the first, Pinocchio, comes to Maumbury Rings on 14th June and to The Sherborne (as we must now describe Sherborne House) on 28th and 29th. In August the show is at Corfe Castle on 6th and Kingston Lacey on 7th. The next production is The Three Musketeers at the new Sherborne venue on 8th and 9th July. A revival of The Pirates of Penzance is at Maumbury Rings on 18th July, and at The Sherborne on 27th and 28th August, and the final Illyria tour is Shakespeare’s As You Like It, stopping at Highcliffe Castle on 23rd July, Castle Gardens in Sherborne on 16th August and Corfe Castle on 20th August.
The Handlebards, the troupe that cycles round the UK to their venues, brings As You Like It to Lyme Regis Marine amphitheatre on 18th June, and brings its second tour, Macbeth, to the same venue on 2nd July and to Brownsea Island from 27th to 29th August.
The commedia dell’arte group The Rude Mechanicals has another orignal show this year. The Wife will be performed at the Square and Compass at Worth Matravers on 19th June, Abbey House at Abbotsbury on 20th June, Mill Farm at Bradford Abbas on 2nd July, Stourpaine playing field on 4th July and at the playing field at Child Okeford on 25th July.
Athelhampton House gardens are the setting for Immersion Theatre’s The Jungle Book on 27th June, and the company returns to the venue with Romeo and Juliet on 11th July.
Plandits Theatre will be delighting younger audiences with The Big Bad Wolf at Maumbury Rings in Dorchester on 5th July at 3pm.
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the all-male troupe performing as if in Shakespeare’s time, will be at Kingston Lacy on 16th and 17th July with Othello, and Rain or Shine, the company that gives a clue to audiences in its name, has chosen The Pickwick Papers for the 2026 tour, coming to Upper Leigh Farm at East Knoyle on 24th July and Holme for Gardens near Wareham the following night. They are back in Dorset on 10th August at Prince Albert Gardens in Swanage, and at Maumbury Rings in Dorchester on 16th August.
Folksy Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is at Lyme Regis Marine Amphitheatre on 4th August, and at Holme for Gardens on 9th August.
Cornish-based Miracle Theatre has two Dorset stops with Peer Gynt – A Comedy of Terrors, at the village hall field in Ibberton 5th August, and at Higher Orchard in Sandford Orcas the following night.
The final tour (so far advertised) is by Quantum Theatre, whose Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny comes to Corfe Castle on 13th August, and to Dorchester’s Maumbury Rings the following day.
Visit websites for details, and let’s hope for fine weather.
