The Summer Shakespeare Festival 2026
THIS SUMMER WE PRESENT:
AS YOU LIKE IT (EN)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Performed in English with Czech surtitles.
As You Like It, from Prague Shakespeare Company, directed by Guy Roberts and starring Jessica Boone as Rosalind, comes to Prague Castle and the Summer Shakespeare Festival. As You Like It is one of William Shakespeare’s most beloved and vibrant comedies. Sparkling with wit, this jubilant tale of a girl disguised as a boy - who tempts the man she loves to fall for the boy she isn't - is flavored with all the longing and pain of everyone's first big romance. Uplifting, awe-inspiring and immense fun, Shakespeare's wondrous comedy is a joyful celebration of the transformative power of love. As You Like It is performed in English, with Czech surtitles translated by Martin Hilský and features a multi-national cast of professional theatre artists from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, America, Australia, England and Canada with exciting music composed and performed by the Ed Kliman and the artistic company.
TWELFTH NIGHT (EN), PREMIERE
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Performed in English with Czech surtitles.
Shipwrecks, twins, sword fights, dances, music and love – Shakespeare’s mischievous and delightful romantic comedy of love, desire and mistaken identities will delight audiences this summer at Prague Castle. Set in the whimsical land of Illyria, the play follows the adventures of Viola, who, disguised as a man, finds herself at the heart of a hilarious series of misunderstandings and mishaps. Twelfth Night from Prague Shakespeare Company is directed by PSC Artistic Director Guy Roberts and Kiara Pipino, and stars Jessica Boone, Taylor Napier, Bree Welch, Elissa Levitt, Jeff Smith, Marc Cram, Josh Morrison, František Heřmánek, Genevieve Gionet, Ash Visker, Dawn Stern, Stephan Wolfert and Guy Roberts among other PSC favorites.
About the Festival
The Summer Shakespeare Festival is the oldest and biggest open-air festival in Europe presenting works by William Shakespeare.
The Festival takes place from the end of June to the beginning of September on open-air scenes in Prague (Prague Castle and Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague), Brno (Špilberk Castle), Ostrava (Silesian Ostrava Castle) and Bratislava (Bratislava Castle). The Festival was started by President Václav Havel when he opened the Prague Castle to artists in the early 1990s in an effort to attract the public there. The first Shakespearean play was staged in 1990 and the festival has been held regularly since 1998.
The Festival enjoys wide popularity as we can see in the demand for tickets, record audience numbers (close to 90,000 per season) and its overall standard reflected in the unparalleled and lively media response and appreciative criticism. Around 150 plays are staged during a summer in an open-air auditorium seating 600 – 1,000 people which is as a rule filled to capacity. The Festival with its annual premieres has established itself during its existence as an event that the public at large does not miss. Plays staged exclusively for the Summer Shakespeare Festival are presented in Czech and sometimes in Slovak.
Although the Festival is largely intended for Czech audiences, the organizers collaborate with foreign ensembles working with Shakespearean themes. The audiences have been able to see during the Festival the comedies ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and ‘A Midsummer Night‘s Dream’ performed in English by British Shakespeare Company (2009), the comedy ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ played by GB Theatre Company (2010), an appearance of the London-based company Shakespeare‘s Globe with the project ‘Globe on Tours – Hamlet’ (2014), a concert evening ‘Patrick Doyle – Shakespeare in Concert’ (2015), the tragedy ‘Richard III’ (2016) performed by the Prague Shakespeare Company to mark the four hundred years’ anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. Prague Shakespeare Company also performed comedy Measure for Measure (2018), tragedy Othello (2019), comedy Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021,2022), and the tragedies Romeo and Juliet (2023), Hamlet (2024), King Lear (2025).
