Make some space in your summer calendars, over the next few months the Botanical Gardens plays host to a summer outdoor theatre season inviting two open-air theatre companies: Chapterhouse and Immersion to bring their lawns to life with four adaptations of some well-known classics. The Botanical Gardens lovely lawns and gorgeous surrounds will create breathtaking backdrops for Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, E. Nesbit’s The Railway Children, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and all new for 2016, L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. Visitors are invited to bring along a picnic but the Pavilion tearooms will also stay open to provide refreshments. The schedule is as follows:

Sense and Sensibility: Wednesday 13 July
The Railway Children: Wednesday 20 July.
The Story of Peter Pan: Wednesday 27 July.
Also showing: The Wizard of Oz: Tuesday 16 August
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Thursday 1 September

Thu 1 Sep, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3TR. Tel: 0121 454 1860. From £10, family ticket: £42 www.birminghambotanicalgardens.org