A dream of summer season at the Hall

A bumper crowd watching a previous production at Lytham Hall

The Chapterhouse Theatre Company will launch the season and their own summer tour on Sunday, June 12 at 6pm with the staging of Emily Bronte’s stormy novel Wuthering Heights.

That is followed, as in previous years, by a trio of very different productions by the Illyria company – Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Friday, July 1 at 7.30pm, Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operetta Ruddigore on Sunday, July 10 (6pm) and Roald Dahl’s popular tale of a country childhood, Danny The Champion of the World on Sunday, August 28 at 4pm.

Last summer, Lytham Hall’s attendance of more than 500 for Jane Eyre was one of the largest Chapterhouse’s countrywide tour and the four-play season took the total donated to the Lytham Hall Appeal fund to £20,000 in the past six summers.

Julian Wilde, who is organising the season of plays is delighted with the variety of the 2016 programme.

He said: “I think the balance of this summer’s programme will have a strong appeal.

“The smouldering chemistry between Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights is always fascinating and the Shakespeare, Gilbert and Sullivan and Roald Dahl  make up a nicely contrasting trio.”

Tickets, price £13 for adults, £10 for seniors and students and £6.50 for schoolchildren, are available online from Illyria and Chapterhouse’s own websites www.illyria.uk.com and www.chapterhouse.org, as well as in person from local outlets Lytham Hall (01253 736652), Plackitt and Booth Booksellers, Lytham (01253 796958), Lowther Pavilion (01253 794221), Stringers Homelife (01253 740700), Storytellers Inc, St Annes (01253 781690) and Bennetts  Bakery, Ansdell (01253 736318).