Come into the garden, Will

Love's Labour's Lost is to be staged in the open air at Wadham College, Oxford

The quintessentially English walled gardens of Wadham College, Oxford, are to host the Oxford Shakespeare Company's production of Love's Labour's Lost. William Shakespeare's early courtship comedy (dated c1594-5) tells the story of King Ferdinand of Navarre and a trio of friends who swear under oath to abstain from women for three years in the higher pursuit of knowledge. Their resolve is put to the test when the Princess of France arrives with her friends.

The quintessentially English walled gardens of Wadham College, Oxford, are to host the Oxford Shakespeare Company's production of Love's Labour's Lost. William Shakespeare's early courtship comedy (dated c1594-5) tells the story of King Ferdinand of Navarre and a trio of friends who swear under oath to abstain from women for three years in the higher pursuit of knowledge. Their resolve is put to the test when the Princess of France arrives with her friends.

"The play lends itself well to being staged outside. When the ladies arrive, the king doesn't let them into the court because of the oath, and so he keeps them in a field," says Kevin Hosier, the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Oxford Shakespeare Company. "The gardens at Wadham are perfect because the chapel at one end works well as the backdrop for the kingdom of Navarre."

The Oxford Shakespeare Company was founded in 2001 by Hosier and its co-artistic director Charlotte Windmill, who will play the Princess of France. Hosier also directed The Taming of the Shrew (2001), Dr Faustus (2002) and As You Like It (2003).

He says that nothing beats open-air theatre. "To perform outside is a very liberating experience because you are free from the clutter of theatre sets and lights. It also helps the play move at a good pace because with no set changes the actors must exit and enter the stage at considerable speed."

But performing outside must be a nightmare at times? "You would suppose so with English summers," says Hosier whose company will also perform Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (in repertory with Love's Labour's Lost) and Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (which will transfer from the North Garden, Lincoln's Inn, in London) in the gardens of Wadham this season.

"In the past three years, we have lost only about a week's worth of performances, and only two nights last season. But we simply carry on, even in the rain. Unless, of course, it gets to a point when it is dangerous for the actors. More often than not, what stops us is the drumming of the rain on the umbrellas. The noise drowns out the actors completely." He adds: "You would be astonished, because the audience will sit there until you stop the show, despite the weather."

Hosier has chosen to set his production in Victorian times. "Our lords are dressed in pastel plus-fours," he says about the flamboyantly dressed men, who look more Oscar Wilde than Shakespeare, while the ladies - far more businesslike and Edwardian in their dark pinstripes - add a seriousness to the men's bubbly air. He explains: "They are the grounded reality of the play. The men are rather immature and need to be taught a good lesson, which they do get. But the point is that the ladies are ahead of the men, also in the age they come from."

'Love's Labour's Lost', Fellows Garden, Wadham College, Parks Road, Oxford (01865 305305; www.ticketsoxford.com) 5 July to 2 September