Bard's best loved at Buerton

It's good to see the Bard can still pull in the crowds. The delightful garden of Buerton House is the setting this weekend for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, as Dean Taylor launches another top notch summer tour.

Outdoor Shakespeare has become a classic annual event in Audlem and this year's production lives up to previous summer successes, playing to packed lawns crammed with picnic tables. There is still chance to grab a spot for Sunday afternoon's show at 2pm and you can pay at the gate.

A splendid cast does more than justice to one of Shakespeare's best romantic comedies, a typical tale of mistaken identity with a dash of cross-dressing and a classic comic subplot which includes some of the Bard's best loved characters.

Dean Taylor himself is splendidly pompous as the stuffy steward Malvolio while Michael Goodenough plays a riotously drunken Toby Belch and Tim Scragg is effortlessly effusive as the silly squire Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

Sarah Scott and Jade Parker are flawless in the central roles of Olivia and Viola and, between them, precipitate this preposterous love tangle with the Paul Hassall playing a suitably self-indulgent Duke Orsino.

Minor characters conjure more confusion, with Richard Fletcher a compelling Feste, and Tony Bond as the pining Antonio a fine foil for Robert Taylor as Viola's lost twin brother Sebastian.

The Buerton House production opens a tour of the north-west that takes in Skipton Castle, Lydiate Abbey, Whalley Abbey and Gawsworth Hall. Today (Sunday 19 June) at 2pm is your last chance to see this splendid production in Audlem.

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