Shakespeare in the Park returns to Wilanów: Twelfth Night on the new stage until 2 August

A blanket on the grass, the sun setting over the palace gardens, and actors in four hundred year old costumes speaking as if it were yesterday. Shakespeare in the Park returns to Wilanów for the tenth time, and there are still a few evenings left in the season.

According to wilanow-palac.pl, the stage in the Southern Park of the Museum of King John III's Palace is currently showing Twelfth Night (Wieczór Trzech Króli), a comedy of love and disguise set in the mythical Illyria. Performances run every evening at 19:30, from 21 July to 2 August, with one night off on 23 July. It's the anniversary edition, so the organisers also built a new, bigger stage, and entry to the museum grounds is now possible from an hour before the show, giving you time to settle on the grass before dusk. Tickets cost 15 PLN full price and 5 PLN concession, available online or at bilety@wilanow-palac.pl.

Earlier in July, the same stage hosted The Comedy of Errors (Komedia omyłek), so anyone who made it in the first half of the month has already seen two different plays in one season for the price of a cinema ticket.

Theatre without a trip to the city centre

The biggest value of this event for someone living in Wilanów isn't Shakespeare himself, it's the distance. No need to take the metro, hunt for parking near a theatre, or plan an evening around the commute. The palace gardens are quite literally around the corner, and the show ends early enough that you can go on a Tuesday or Wednesday and still get up fine the next morning.

Fifteen PLN for a ticket and a palace garden instead of a theatre hall, a rare chance for high culture to feel like a picnic with neighbours.

Until 2 August there are still a few evenings left, then the stage disappears until next summer. Anyone who wants to make it shouldn't leave the ticket until the last minute, because seats under the open sky run out too.