An audience of more than 150 gathered at Calne Pocket Park on Wednesday evening to watch Illyria’s production of ‘Pride & Prejudice’.
llyria Outdoor Theatre have performed for more than a million people over their thirty years touring the 
country, performing plays such as 'Twelfth Night' and 'Robin Hood' at open-air venues.
Last night, an eager audience gathered at the Pocket Park in Calne to watch the much anticipated performance of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'.
Chairman of the Pocket Park, John Boaler, commented afterwards: ‘It was a hugely enjoyable performance. Illyria are a highly professional company who perform at many prestigious venues including National Trust properties. It was wonderful to welcome them again to Calne - after their very successful ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ here last summer.
"They packed almost every scene in Jane Austen’s novel into just 2 hours, and brought the story to life with their lively entertaining performance.
"All in all it was a great evening. Many of the audience brought picnics with them and our pop-up cafe was kept busy.
"Huge thanks to the team of Pocket Park volunteers who have worked so hard this summer - during which we have held four events, with our Coronation Tea in May, a Mary Lou concert in June, ‘Pandora’s Box’ theatre production in July and finally ‘Pride & Prejudice’."
One audience member, Margaret, told us: "It was absolutely brilliant, to have this just on our doorstep, we are lucky really. For a couple of hours you could just lose yourself, the atmosphere was brilliant and the surroundings looked and smelled beautiful."
Calne Town Mayor, Robert MacNaughton added: "Superb performance that was much loved by the spectators, I was very impressed by how much the crowd applauded and cheered at the end of the show. The Pocket Park committee organised the same company to come to the park last year to perform 'A Midsummer's Night Dream' which was great, but 'Pride & Prejudice' was even better."
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