We wish we were currently able to welcome you to the open air theatre in the park. Profits from each season go to support the work of Cornwall Youth Theatre Company who have been working with young people in Cornwall since 1984.

Many of you are refusing ticket refunds on cancelled events and we appreciate your kindness, increasingly we’ve been asked about helping via direct donation.

Please click the LINK to donate and accept our heartfelt thanks.

It is with regret that we have taken the difficult decision to close the Open Air Theatre to the public. This includes suspending all visits, workshops and performances.

In this fast-moving situation, we are only able to plan with confidence a few weeks ahead. We will remain closed as long as we need to and will regularly monitor and update our decision in light of government and Public Health England advice.

This has been a hard decision to make, but the welfare of our volunteers, our performing companies, our local community and the general public must come first in these extraordinary times and we know that you will support and understand our decision.

Once the current crisis is behind us, we are hoping to reschedule events for a later date.

Anyone who has tickets for performances which have been postponed or cancelled will be contacted by our Box Office team. We won’t contact you unless the performance for which you have tickets is affected, so if you’ve booked to see a show later in the season, you won’t hear from us unless we have to cancel it.

We may be closed, but we’ll still be here on social media. So do keep in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or sign up to our newsletter.

Meanwhile, we send you our thanks for your support and our wishes for your health and well-being through the difficult days ahead.

Penlee Park Open Air Theatre – the theatre in the park in the heart of Penzance. A unique outdoor theatre space that has celebrated Cornish, national and international performers since 1948.

In 2016, we became one of Cornwall365’s Cultural Ambassadors and in 2018 Penzance became the first town in the UK to be awarded Plastic Free status by Surfers Against Sewage; as a venue we believe it is important to make a stand against single-use plastic products and have achieved plastic free status by removing all petro-chemical based products and replacing them with plant-based plastic products. We are now also members of The Final Straw Cornwall, you will not find plastic straws offered in our venue! In 2018, we celebrated our 70th Anniversary season. In 2019, we will be exclusively using bamboo-based toilet paper in our conveniences from Who Gives a Crap. It makes absolute sense as we are in the UK’s first plastic-free town!

Set in beautiful sheltered surroundings in Penlee Park, the theatre seats around 300 people. Come and enjoy an afternoon or evening of quality entertainment in the open air this summer from our varied programme.

There is the opportunity to order home-made vegetable pre-show curry, served with naan bread and yoghurt (£5.50), jacket potato with veggie curry (£6.50) or jacket potato with butter and grated cheese (£5.50) when you book your show tickets with CRBO. Our home-made vegetable curry is both dairy and gluten free. In addition, there is a licensed bar plus a full range of both hot and soft drinks and snacks. Please note: hot food may not be available at all matinee performances.

Pick up a LOYALTY CARD at the box office!

See 3 shows and then see number 4 for FREE! Present your Loyalty Card at the box office, get it stamped and three stamps later – one free show!

PENLEE GIFT VOUCHERS are available from CRBO!

Gift vouchers may be purchased via CRBO, please ask at the time of booking.

You can book online or call the box office on 01726 879500

We are extremely grateful for both financial and facility support from Penzance Town Council.

Supported by Penzance Town Council, Penlee House and Golowan

Cornish Weather

Our summer productions are Open–Air and are performed outside, uncovered.

Audience members therefore accept that weather, climate, temperature, light conditions, and various other elements which are out of our control, may impact on the performance.

While we make every effort to complete each show, we reserve the right to:
Stop and start the performance as necessary or commence the show up to one hour after the stated time.

Apart from extreme circumstances, we will not cancel a performance before the advertised start time. It can often rain all day, yet clear up just before the performance is due to commence.

We perform in all but the worst of weathers, rain included. However, where such weather is deemed to pose a health and safety risk to the performers or our audience i.e. torrential rain or thunder and lightning strike – we reserve the right to stop the performance. Should the performance be unable to continue, the decision to cancel will be made between the visiting company and the venue manager.

Refunds and Exchanges

Refunds are not given for the cancellation or abandonment of a show as a result of poor weather.

Upcoming Events

All 2020 events have now been cancelled
all events