Final call for Jane Eyre

The quality of the setting at Lytham Hall for open air theatre has won high praise from the director of the summer’s first play.

Next Sunday June 14 Chapterhouse Theatre Company from Lincoln will be at Lytham Hall for just the third date of their nationwide open air tour of Jane Eyre. The cast of six will give 54 performances in 89 days travelling to Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as English venues from Cumbria to Cornwall.

Richard Main, artistic director of Chapterhouse who has no fewer than six open air shows on the road this summer, rates the setting at Lytham Hall very highly.

“Jane Eyre is a play very much about inner feelings and one of the challenges for our whole cast of six, when playing in the open air, is to maintain that important sense of intimacy, but still to be heard. The magnificent trees surrounding the arena create superb acoustics and of course there is a complete absence of traffic noise. It’s one of the favourite places on our tour.” he said.

The arena, adjacent to the Hall and in the midst of 80 acres of parkland, has become a favourite of touring companies in the past five years. Last summer Lytham Hall was the best attended of 50 outdoor venues in the country for the Illyria’s performance of the Pirates of Penzance, attracting an audience of over 600.

Julian Wilde, organiser of the open air season, is pleased with advance ticket sales approaching 400, despite some changeable weather in early June, and is hoping for a full house with walk-up ticket sales.

“Our audiences always find that Laura Turner’s adaptations of classic novels are most engaging and attractive, true to the spirit of the book. I understand that rehearsals have been going well and I am really looking forward now to opening our season with another first-class production by Chapterhouse in front of a capacity crowd.”