This summer will be Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre’s 10th Birthday! 

Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre opened with Much Ado About Nothing and Hercules and a semi-circular theatre in the park in the summer of 2010. 24 productions and 180,000 audience members later, this year’s season will open on 6 July 2019 and features Twelfth Night, Henry V and The Borrowers.

“There’s a wonderful cultural democracy, and a little bit of anarchy too, about theatre in the round – and a visceral relationship between our actors and our audience as a result. It’s truly a shared experience. And we love that our audience has wholeheartedly embraced that experience, from the now traditional pre-performance checking of lotion and handing out of hats to those exposed to the sun’s rays, to the full waterproofs that make an appearance on more inclement summer days. Much of the theatre space remains thrillingly open to the elements, just as it would have been in Shakespeare’s day.” – Alex Clifton, Artistic Director

Here’s 10 things you might not know about Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre:

1. Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre opened in 2010 to bring live theatre back to Chester following the closure of The Gateway Theatre in 2007, with a semi-circular theatre at Grosvenor Park.

2. The first summer, we welcomed 3000 theatregoers for three weeks, now 27,000 audience members are welcomed over nine weeks.

3. Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre invests in brand new writing – every year a playwright writes a new version for Grosvenor Park audiences.

4. Each summer around 5000 children see the open air theatre shows for free!

5. In ten years, only two shows have ever been cancelled…due to tempests.

6. 165 actors have performed at Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, including one set of twins.

7. In the 2018 heatwave, audiences got through 35 litres of free suncream…

8. …and 4542 glasses of fizz were drunk!

9. Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre operates a 50/50 gender split within its acting company, so half of the actors are men and half women.

10. Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre takes exactly 19 days to build. Don’t worry – we help the grass to grow back afterwards!