To me, Trinity has always been Oxford’s golden term. As an English student, the first and last years of my degree are punctuated by Prelims and Finals. But Trinity term in second year (the true meaning of being ‘Trini-free’) provides a whole term free for soaking up Oxford’s golden, sun-kissed buildings, sitting in the green laps of college quads – and, most importantly for this article, the time to get involved in college garden plays. 

Garden plays are productions that take place within college grounds. These are often Shakespeare plays, though in recent years, more modern productions have been selected. I have especially loved the variety of garden plays present this term, with the Wadham College Drama Society performing The Princess Bride and the Trinity Players putting on The Great Gatsby, accompanied by a live band. The New College Classical Drama Society puts on a yearly Greek play: Electra was my first induction into the garden play scene as a fresher.

Oxford’s history of college garden plays stretches back almost a century, with a recorded performance of The Tempest at Worcester College in 1934. Worcester boasts the ‘longest-running college drama society in Oxford’, making use of their extensive grounds to perform several Shakespeare plays. On one memorable instance, a production of The Merchant of Venice even staged a floating pontoon moored next to the college’s lake!

I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy many garden plays during my time at Oxford. In Trinity term of my second year, I was able to engage with the garden play tradition from both a crew and cast perspective, putting on a production at my own college (Much Ado About Nothing) and acting in the Merton Floats’ production of All’s Well that Ends Well. In my experience, garden plays – adore them though I do – provide as many challenges as they do opportunities. For every beautiful college backdrop for the performance, there is a surge of rain ready to force you into your backup venues.

Garden plays provide an opportunity for performances to be more stripped back; lighting, for instance, is often more limited for a garden play than it would be at one of Oxford’s indoor venues, and the natural scenery can become your props. Juliet’s ‘a rose by any other word would smell as sweet’ could be delivered next to the college’s rosebush; Caliban’s ‘the isle is full of noises’ accompanied by the hoot of a nearby owl. On that note, though, take care to maintain a respectful awareness of your local wildlife (wasps and bees are not always the most obedient actors).

Theatre outside has always seemed a very magical thing to me, and I’ve loved both performing in and watching productions in open-air venues. However, outdoor performance venues have a greater impact on shows than is usually anticipated by crews and casts, and I have yet to see a garden play where at least one actor’s voice isn’t muffled by the wind or the effects of outdoor acoustics. 

The camaraderie involved in a garden play is often second-to-none. There’s nothing quite like tearing through the rain to get to your wet weather venue, as the crew members attempt to cajole generally good-natured but occasionally disgruntled audience members to move to the new setting. 

For those newer to the Oxford drama scene – and to Trinity garden plays – the advice is mostly the same as for all OUDS productions: try to get organised as early as you can. A garden play in Fourth Week means only three weeks of rehearsals (if Noughth Week is mostly discounted for collections and Fourth Week is show week), and in an Oxford term those weeks fill up quickly. Of course, it always adds extra zest for cast members to be learning lines the night before the show – and is, at this stage, almost a tradition in student drama – but this perhaps puts more stress on the crew than is strictly necessary, so lots of notice for both cast and crew is preferable.

A garden play can also involve turning a space not usually used for drama into a performance space, which can require a lot of liaising with college staff (and sourcing suitable outdoor seating for audience members). Again, plenty of time to prepare is preferable here. Take note of your surroundings and be aware of the ever present chiming of bells in Oxford at critical performance moments: don’t have Hamlet’s ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy as the nearby chapel rings in nine o’clock (or do, if that’s the Gothic atmosphere you’re looking for, but make sure your actor is prepared to project over the noise!).         

For those going to watch garden plays:

  1. Check the weather forecast ahead of time, and bring raincoats if needed – light rain is not always enough to move a production indoors, and can make watching less enjoyable if you don’t have a coat to hand.
  2. Bring layers! It gets far colder watching a play on a summer evening than you might think.
  3. Bring snacks (but not super loud ones – theatre etiquette still applies here).
  4. Bring blankets if you need to – see point number one on layers: seriously, it gets colder than you think. 
  5. If you struggle with hay fever, the use of an outdoor venue may exacerbate your symptoms (as friends of mine have noted coming to watch garden plays), so it’s something to watch out for!
  6. And lastly, enjoy the show! Appreciate the joy of a performance in such a beautiful setting, put on by students purely for the love of it.

With not much time remaining of my final Trinity term at Oxford, and as someone who has met some of their best friends at university through Oxford drama, I would encourage you to use the wonderful tradition of garden plays as a way to get involved – even if only as an audience member.