Richard Main, Artistic Director of Chapterhouse, talks to Jane McGowan about the joy of open-air theatre
What could be better on a warm summer’s evening than relaxing in the sumptuous setting of a stately home, picnic blanket beneath you, top-class actors strutting and fretting their hour before your eyes?
Well, not a lot – and that is precisely why, 17 years ago, Richard Main founded Chapterhouse, a theatre company devoted to performing some of the most popular works in literature outdoors.
“I’d done open-air theatre myself as an actor and had simply fallen in love with it,” he explains. “Once experienced, it becomes a bit of a bug. I don’t think there’s anything like it.”
And so, sensing a gap in the market for a national touring company, Richard created Chapterhouse and set it on the long and winding road.
“The first year we had 33 venues, the second year 160 and it’s pretty much been growing ever since. This season we will do 189 single nights in 170 venues. For the actors it’s almost like an opening night every night.”
The team too has grown and Chapterhouse now boasts a permanent staff of eight, along with 22 actors all busy rehearsing for this summer’s season of classics – The Railway Children, Peter Pan, Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility and more – to be performed in some of the most exquisite settings in the land.
“I choose the plays and adaptations myself,” says Richard. “With input from our directors, of course. It’s an important process. We have to have confidence in the production before we can go out to potential venues. We’re also very careful to put the shows in the most beautiful of places. There’s nothing better than watching Jane Austen in front of a Georgian mansion.”
With Peter Pan coming to Claremont, near Esher, and Sense and Sensibility to Hatchlands Park, East Clandon, this year’s crop of settings is well and truly up to scratch.
However, there is one thing which Richard simply cannot control: the Great British weather.
“I used to send a list of venues to my dad and he would constantly be ringing up to warn of impending downpours. But in the past few years we haven’t had to cancel a single show. In any case, audiences in England and Ireland are more than prepared. They always arrive with blankets and brollies, whatever the weather.”
So put the barbecue away, pack a picnic and head down to your nearest stately home for an engaging theatrical spectacle.
“On a hot August night, when the stars come up and all you can hear are the voices of the actors, it’s an incredible experience,” says Richard. “Pure magic, in fact.”
Peter Pan is at Claremont Landscape Garden on July 16; Sense and Sensibility at Hatchlands Park on August 18. For booking and other dates, visit: chapterhouse.org
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