Heartbreak bringing outdoor theatre back

Their musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labours Lost will start at 7.30pm on May 27 and 28.

Later in the summer, the company will be performing Jane Austen’s Emma and their own adaptation of the popular David Walliams novel, Mr Stink.

In true Heartbreak style, the shows are all framed as a story within a story. Emma is told from the perspective of romantic artists using Austen’s work for inspiration, Love’s Labours Lost is set at an Oxford college in the roaring 20s, and Mr Stink unfolds at a birthday party for Annabelle Crumb, the spoiled sister of the book’s heroine, Chloe.

The stories carry a common theme, centring on young people.

Artistic director Peter Mimmack said: “Emma and Love’s Labour’s Lost both play on the impetuosity and arrogance of youth, with the characters muddling through circumstances that they have themselves created, but coming out wiser on the other side. Mr Stink focuses on a young girl going through the trauma of teenage years with a difficult mother and getting support from an unlikely source.”

Mr Stink will be performed at Jephson Gardens on June 2 and 3 at 6.30pm. Emma will be performed on June 10 and 11 at 7.30pm, also in the gardens.

Tickets start at £13.50 for adults. Visit www.heartbreakproductions.co.uk to book.