07 Oct 2026
Deborah Heath takes a look back at this year’s shows…
A few weeks after the dust has settled at the Roman Theatre, I reflect on another festival from OVO. For although the weather proved challenging for them this year, they didn’t let it stand in their way of delivering another corker.
There were a few changes this year – more toilets to reduce the lengthy interval hiatus, a great sound system (introduced at the very end of last year’s festval) and a
new food stand. During the festival I tried out their premium seating on a couple of occasions, and although it was certainly more comfortable and gave better protection from the rain, I prefer to be closer to the action at the front sometimes risking getting soaked by a downpour – I consider it part of the fun!
It’s great that we have a choice of seating options and with advance season ticket booking as an option, you can be sure of competitive prices too.
The season started strongly with Marc O’Sullivan’s fun and quirky Sherlock Holmes adaptation. It certainly set the bar high.
You can always rely on OVO for some bold interpretations of classic texts. This year, aside from Shakespeare they gave us a 1920s spin on ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest’ which worked incredibly well.
There were some lovely additional pieces too including the interesting ‘Roman Theatre Spectacle’ which was a history lesson with a twist. I would love to see some more stand-up comedy next year – Richard Herring and Catie Wilkins were an early highlight for me.
One sad turn of events was when the first performance of ‘Twelfth Night’, the OVO youth production, had to be called off due to an electrical storm. To add to this misfortune, I wasn’t able to attend to review one of the later performances. On the strength of Act I though, I would like to commend the hard-working team for their efforts in performing this ambitious project – I don’t think I have seen such a large youth company on this stage yet!
Let’s also give a shout out to the unsung heroes of the festival – the marvellous front of house team. They kept us happy and safe throughout the run and when the site had to be evacuated in pitch darkness due to the ‘Twelfth Night’ storm, their professionalism and friendliness in the face of adversity was outstanding.
So here are my top picks for this year…
Best Shakespeare: Adam Nichols gave us a successful reboot of their hippy inspired ‘As You Like It’. This was a great example of what OVO do best – bold re-imaginings of the Bard’s work complete with actor-musician vibes. Ryan Munroe’s choreography and Tom Cagnoni’s band (The Whom) were the icing on the cake. I attended the show very early in its run and was pleased to hear it being the talk of the town for weeks afterwards. Well done to the cast and creatives.
Best Design: ‘As You Like It’ boasted some outstanding design including a VW style bus and costumes that were both beautiful and practical for quick changes. The sound and lighting design was also spot on for this production. High commendations to Simon Nicholas (set), Cieranne Kennedy-Bell (costume), Jack Hathaway (lighting) and Ollie Welland (sound). However, I would also like to give a commendation to Adam Bottomley, designer of visiting production ‘Company’ (Act4 Productions.) The Manhattan apartment with its back-lit city skyline which changed according to the weather and time of day was outstanding.
Best Visiting Show: ‘The (Almost) Complete History of Britain.’ The Pantaloons delighted me once again with their trademark knack of managing a macro character list with a micro cast. Their energy and professionalism in the face of truly terrible was frankly inspiring. They covered around 200 years in two hours and successfully blended comedy and tragedy. A fun show for the entire family!
Overall Favourite: ‘Sherlock Holmes’ made me laugh like a drain. There were some great multi-role performances from the cast and Mark O’Sullivan’s adaptation shone with attention to detail, and fondness. It’s actually very difficult to successfully adapt prose to dramatic text but this is a great example of it being done well and with the respect to the original text that it deserves. Furthermore, the design was very pleasing across costumes and set with a unifying rich Victorian palette of dark blue and maroon.
The Roman Theatre Festival might be over for another year, but don’t be sad – OVO have new projects coming up at the new Barn Theatre conversion. You can expect a full report from me later this year!
