We regret that, due to the current essential maintenance work being undertaken by Reading Borough Council in the Abbey Ruins, we will be unable to present our annual Open-Air Shakespeare production or any other Festival events in 2009. We plan to return to the open air in 2010 and further details will be announced later this year.

Instead we will be performing Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing from 26 November to 5 December 2009 at our self-managed venue, Progress Theatre (The Mount, off Christchurch Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 5HL). Open auditions for this production will be held on 16 July, 7.30pm and 19 July, 2.30pm at Progress.

If you cannot wait until December, the Progress Theatre Youth Group are performing Twelfth Night on 29 and 30 June at Progress Theatre as part of our Youth Week. Tickets are just £5 and are available in advance from Reading Arts (a booking fee applies) or on the door.

Progress is an intimate, 97-seat theatre with a newly refurbished foyer featuring a regularly changing gallery of artwork from local artists. We are fully licensed and our bar has credit-crunch busting prices on wines, spirits and a range of bottled real ales.

In addition to the Shakespeare, we are also presenting a varied season of plays between 2009 and 2010 including the Award-winning Closer by Patrick Marber in September, the mad-cap Going Postal by Terry Pratchett in January, the hilarious Intimate Exchanges by Alan Ayckbourn in April, and the horrifying Pillowman by Martin McDonagh in May. Our full season is as follows:

• 28 September to 3 October 2009 - Closer by Patrick Marber
(audition notice)
• 22 to 24 October - The 4th Annual Writefest
• 26 November to 5 December - Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• 28 January to 6 February 2010 - Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (adap. Stephen Briggs)
• 1 to 6 March - A Couple of Poor, English-Speaking Poles by Dorota Maslowska
• 22 to 27 March - Youth Group production
• 14 to 24 April - Intimate Exchanges by Alan Ayckbourn
• 20 to 29 May - The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
• 14 to 19 June - Youth Group production

The Abbey Ruins Open Air Festival is presented by Progress Theatre in partnership with Reading Borough Council