Get ready for an extraordinary fusion of history, theatre, and music as the Roman Theatre Open Air Festival returns to St Albans for its 11th year.
Presented by acclaimed theatre production company OVO, the 2025 summer festival promises an unforgettable season of bold, imaginative, and dynamic performances in one of the UK’s most breathtaking, historic settings.
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| Adam Nichols |
Since its inception in 2014, the festival has grown into one of the largest outdoor festivals in the country, drawing over 15,000 visitors each year.
Set against the stunning backdrop of the Roman Theatre of Verulamium, this open-air festival takes place in the UK’s oldest producing theatre, dating back to 140 AD.
With innovative adaptations of classic plays and vibrant musical performances, the 2025 season is set to be another sell-out success - making it a highlight of the summer arts calendar.
This year’s exciting programme of events includes Les Misérables, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Funny Thin Happened On The Way To The Forum, The Great Gatsby and Lord of the Flies.
Ahead of the festival which runs from 6th June until 31st August we caught up with Adam Nichols, OVO Artistic Director and founder.
It’s around a year since we last spoke, how do you reflect on the 2024 season?
2024 was another successful season. It was probably our most challenging year for weather, both in the run up to starting and the first half of the festival itself, but our audiences are hardy and visitor numbers held up! Artistically it was great to debut two brand new adaptations – Sense and Sensibility and The Highwayman – as well as presenting the largest number of shows we’ve ever had in a programme, with 18 in total.
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| OVO Roman Open Air Theatre at Sunset. Photo by Adam Nichols |
What changes have you made ahead of the exciting 2025 season?
In response to audience feedback, we are doing fewer shows but for longer runs. This will enable us to continue to improve our production values, which is something we try to add to every year. We have also changed our ticketing structure to create more cheap tickets to widen accessibility to the festival, whilst at the same time creating a covered premium seating area which is again something that our audiences have requested. We will also be offering food on site for the first time.
How have you settled on the program of productions for the new season?
It’s always a balance between trying to uphold our values of being “bold, imaginative and inspiring” whilst at the same time ensuring that we are putting on shows that have broad popular appeal, given that 100% of our income comes from ticket sales so we need to get bums on seats! Shakespeare has always been at the core of our work, and we are currently in a phase of reviving and reworking some of the shows from our back catalogue, so I’m very excited that we are bringing back A Midsummer Night’s Dream alongside the wonderfully irreverent version of Hamlet by the brilliant Pantaloons. We have found that literary adaptations have become increasingly popular with our audiences over the past few years, which is why Les Misérables and The Great Gatsby, being two of the great modern classics, are part of this year’s programme.
What can you tell me about this year’s productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Great Gatsby? Both pieces have had many stagings in their time, how do you approach doing something different with the pieces?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is probably the most performed Shakespeare play, and so many people have studied it at school, so it has acquired a sort of familiarity which means I think that you have to find a completely different way of presenting the show to pique and retain an audience’s interest. That isn’t about doing something off the wall for the sake of it – as always with our Shakespeare productions we are looking for a concept that helps to bring out the natural themes of the play and brings them to life for a modern audience. The 1970s setting certainly did that a few years ago in the original iteration of this show, and I’m sure it will be even more vibrant and engaging this time around.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is probably the most performed Shakespeare play, and so many people have studied it at school, so it has acquired a sort of familiarity which means I think that you have to find a completely different way of presenting the show to pique and retain an audience’s interest. That isn’t about doing something off the wall for the sake of it – as always with our Shakespeare productions we are looking for a concept that helps to bring out the natural themes of the play and brings them to life for a modern audience. The 1970s setting certainly did that a few years ago in the original iteration of this show, and I’m sure it will be even more vibrant and engaging this time around.
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| A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photo by Elliott Franks |
The Great Gatsby has become somewhat ubiquitous in recent years because the novella’s copyright has lapsed, so everyone has jumped on the bandwagon of creating theatrical adaptations, most notably with the immersive Gatsby which ran for several years in various London venues. What we’ll be doing is to evoke the atmosphere of the book, using live music (as we do in most of our shows) along with a simple style of storytelling which should hopefully echo the narrative voice of Nick Carraway. It’s actually a deceptively difficult novel to adapt for the stage because it is largely about mood, not action, but I’m confident our amazing team will create something special!
How important is it that you make the tickets accessible and affordable?
It’s extremely important. We know that our audience at the Roman Festival is as much there for a fun night out as a serious theatre experience, and a significant proportion are not regular theatregoers. We are in the business of giving people a live performance experience that can rival what is on offer in London, but at a time when a trip to the West End is out of reach of many people because it has become so expensive. We’ve restructured our ticket pricing this year to create many more cheaper tickets – over 3,000 in total – and for £75 you can buy a season ticket which gives you a seat at five of the theatre shows, which is about what you’d pay for one of the streaming services for the duration of the festival. We are also offering tickets for children at £15 for all performances – we really want to inculcate a love of theatre in the next generation and we know that our productions are brilliant at turning young people on to the stage.
It’s extremely important. We know that our audience at the Roman Festival is as much there for a fun night out as a serious theatre experience, and a significant proportion are not regular theatregoers. We are in the business of giving people a live performance experience that can rival what is on offer in London, but at a time when a trip to the West End is out of reach of many people because it has become so expensive. We’ve restructured our ticket pricing this year to create many more cheaper tickets – over 3,000 in total – and for £75 you can buy a season ticket which gives you a seat at five of the theatre shows, which is about what you’d pay for one of the streaming services for the duration of the festival. We are also offering tickets for children at £15 for all performances – we really want to inculcate a love of theatre in the next generation and we know that our productions are brilliant at turning young people on to the stage.
Why do you think people should take a chance of a visit to the theatre?
Coming to a show at the Roman Theatre is a totally unique experience. It is over 2,000 years old – the oldest theatre left in the UK – and a truly magical place to watch a performance. We are creating productions that are completely unique and unlike anything you can see anywhere else. There’s a lot of wonderful TV being made right now, but there really is no substitute for live performance, and an open air production is a collective, collaborative, electric experience like no other.
To book visit: www.ovo.org.uk
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| The Roman Theatre with St Albans in view. Photo by Adrian Fisher. |
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