With the wasps and flying ants beginning to mass, lobster-red holidaymakers walking the street and the evenings lasting into the night, it’s a perfect time for open-air theatre.

Below Duncan Hall picks out a selection of performances across the county over the next two months, ranging from Shakespeare to Roald Dahl.

HIGHDOWN GARDENS, WORTHING Dedicated to producing accessible but traditional versions of the Bard’s work, Rainbow Shakespeare is performing comedies from the beginning and the end of the great playwright’s career.

The Tempest, which starts on Tuesday, is thought to have been written around 1610/11 towards the end of Shakespeare’s career. Set on a desert island, ruled by the magician Prospero, the story weaves in snatched thrones, fairies, monsters and the titular storm which brings the magician’s brother on to his island shores.

The following week turns the clock further back to what is thought to be one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, The Comedy Of Errors, written before 1594.

Confusion reigns when a pair of twins separated at birth are unwittingly unreunited in the city of Ephesus.

*The Tempest: Tuesday to Sunday, July 24. The Comedy Of Errors: Tuesday, July 26, to Sunday, July 31. Starts 7.30pm, gates open for picnics 6.30pm, 2pm matinees Sat and Sun, tickets £16/£8 or £30/£14 for both. Call 01903 206206.

CRAWLEY With the twin venues of Goffs Park and The Hawth Amphitheatre, Crawley has a trio of family open-air performances on offer, starting with one of Roald Dahl’s best-loved tales.

Fantastic Mr Fox is being brought to Goffs Park on Wednesday, August 3, by Illyria in a stage adaptation by David Wood. Mr Fox wants to feed his family using the stocks of nearby farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean – but they have other ideas.

The Hawth Amphitheatre is hosting one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular comic operettas, The Pirates Of Penzance, also performed by touring open-air company Illyria, on Thursday, August 11.

And Pitchy Breath Theatre is taking over the venue for two days for their take on the adventures of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Mr Toad in Kenneth Grahame’s classic The Wind In The Willows.

*Fantastic Mr Fox: Goffs Park, Wednesday, August 3, 6.30pm, £12/£6. The Pirates Of Penzance: Hawth Amphitheatre, Hawth Avenue, Thursday, August 11, 7.30pm, £12/£9. The Wind In The Willows: Hawth Amphitheatre, Saturday, August 20, and Sunday, August 21, 2.30pm and 7.30pm (not Sun), £7.50/£6. Call 01293 553636.

LEWES CASTLE Brighton Little Theatre returns for their annual open-air Shakespeare performance with the comedy The Merry Wives Of Windsor.

Apparently written for Queen Elizabeth because she had enjoyed the antics of Falstaff in Henry IV so much, the action has been set in the 1920s to match the piece’s zany and light-hearted feel.

This production has been created with the help of professionals working with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages Project, and will be premiered at the Brighton Little Theatre from Tuesday, August 9, to Saturday, August 13 before going to Lewes.

*Wednesday, August 17, to Saturday, August 20, doors 6.30pm, starts 7.30pm, £12/£10. Call 01273 777748.

NYMANS, HAYWARDS HEATH This summer the National Trust property welcomes touring companies performing works by three of the greatest writers in the English language.

The open-air theatre programme begins on Sunday, July 24, with The Pantaloons touring version of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, condensing all the stories into one show, mixing theatre styles, wigs and tremendous energy. Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew is brought to life by TNT Theatre on Sunday, July 31.

And Great Expectations, by the figurehead of Victorian literature Charles Dickens, tells the story of young Pip as he tries to make his way in the world, recreated live by Quantum Theatre on Sunday, August 7.

*Gates 6pm, starts 7pm, tickets £16/£5. Call 0844 2491895.

PETWORTH HOUSE AND PARK Open-air opera is the order of the day at National Trust property Petworth House, with two of the most popular comic operas of all time.

Mozart’s The Magic Flute opens the programme on Friday, August 5, with Opera Brava’s international cast retelling the tale of sorcery and love as first performed in Vienna in 1791.

The following day, Saturday, August 6, sees the company take on Rossini’s The Barber Of Seville, containing some of the most memorable lines and tunes in the whole operatic canon.

*Starts 7.30pm, tickets £27.50 in advance, £35 on the night, £10 children. Call 01444 443000.

ARUNDEL CASTLE Traditionally one of the highlights of the Arundel Festival is the annual Shakespeare performances in the Collector Earl’s Garden.

This year sees the GB Theatre Company performing the tragic romance Romeo And Juliet, and the comedy Twelfth Night, which will star Gabriel Thomson from BBC One’s hit sitcom My Family.

*Romeo And Juliet: Thursday, August 25 and Saturday, August 27. Twelfth Night: Friday, August 25. Garden opens 6.30pm, starts 7.30pm, tickets £25/£15. Call 01903 882173.

CHAPTERHOUSE THEATRE Touring theatre company Chapterhouse will be all over Sussex over the next two months, with two classic Shakespeare plays and a Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

The Bard’s battle of the sexes The Taming Of The Shrew is being performed on Wednesday at the Cowdray Ruins, in Midhurst, and Buxted Park Hotel, in Ashdown Forest on Sunday, July 24.

And the idyllic forest romp A Midsummer Night’s Dream is coming to Michelham Priory, near Hailsham, on Monday, August 29.

Meanwhile younger theatregoers will enjoy Laura Turner’s take on Snow White, set in a 1940s garden as six children decide to re-enact the classic story, which comes to Cowdray Ruins on Saturday, August 27, and Ghyll Manor Hotel, in High Street, Rusper, on Sunday, August 28.

*Cowdray Ruins: The Taming Of The Shrew starts 7pm, tickets £12/£8. Snow White starts 4pm, tickets £11/£7. Call 01730 810781. Ghyll Manor Hotel: Snow White starts 4pm, tickets £11/£7.Call 0845 3453426. Buxted Park Hotel: The Taming Of The Shrew starts 4pm, tickets £18/£14. Call 01825 731303. Michelham Priory: A Midsummer Night’s Dream starts 7pm, tickets £12/£8. Call 01323 844224.