TAKE a chair and a travel rug and enjoy a theatre classic in the great outdoors.

And what better backdrop for a play by Shakespeare than the stunning frontage of the Lawrence Batley Theatre.

Next weekend, Heartbreak Productions celebrates 20 years of productions by doing what it has always done and staging a show outdoors.

The company will not use either of the LBT’s three indoor staging areas but will perform in the courtyard formed by the wings and main facade of the 19th century building.

Keep your fingers crossed for fine weather next Sunday (July 31) as Heartbreak stage The Taming Of The Shrew.

Take a picnic, something warm and something to sit on as the company retell the famous tale of Bianca, the girl who wants to marry but can’t until her sister is wed.

And there’s the problem. Who on earth would want to marry spitting, spunky Katherine who is to some, a bit of a shrew?

Heartbreak have switched the location of Shakespeare’s play to the 1920s and you will soon see why.

They’ve reset the Bard’s battle of wills in a Berkshire village fete in July 1928.

The landowner’s wife is a feminist playing Katharina and this production is her celebration for the passing that summer of the Reform Bill For Equal Franchise for Women.

Shakespeare’s plot remains as it always was with Petruchio being the man battling to tame the girl no-one else seems to want.

The production is a real milestone choice for the company as The Taming of the Shrew was its first open air production two decades ago.

The company was founded by Maddy Kerr and artistic director Peter Mimmack and is based in Leamington Spa.

It specialises in classic stories from literature and was last in Huddersfield a year ago with an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic novel, The Secret Garden.

Expect to be in the LBT courtyard on July 31 for a show of about two and a half hours. So pack the picnic, perhaps the wedding cake, and take those brollies.

The performance starts at 7pm. Tickets are £12 and £10 for concessions from the box office on 01484 430528.

You can book online at www.thelbt.org