CHAPTERHOUSE Theatre Company returns to York this evening as part of its 12th year of open-air garden theatre shows that will take the Lincoln travelling troupe to Northallerton, Tadcaster, Helmsley, Harewood and Fountains Abbey too.

Tonight, August 5, Chapterhouse presents Laura Turner’s new adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Cranford: a lazy summer evening’s entertainment wherein Rebecca Gadsby’s production transports the audience to the sleepy country village of Cranford for the adventures and dramas of Victorian rural life.

“Brush off your bustle and fasten your bonnets as we invite you to Cranford, where a mysterious new arrival is setting hearts aflutter,” says Rebecca, whose show incorporates music, song, romance and dance at 7pm in the Museum Gardens.

“At the centre of the village are the outrageously proper spinster sisters, Matty and Deborah Jenkyns, who head an unforgettable collection of loveably misguided womenfolk. Set deep in the tranquil English countryside, this most traditional tale of splendid snobbery, gossip and social scandal pits lost loves against old friends with sensational results.”

Chapterhouse is touring Cranford to mark Elizabeth Gaskill’s bicentenary and further performances can be seen at Mount Grace Priory, Staddlebridge, Northallerton, tomorrow and Helmsley Castle, Helmsley, on August 14, both at 7.30pm.

Chapterhouse’s take on Snow White visits Thorp Perrow Arboretum, Bedale, tomorrow at 6pm and Harewood House, Harewood, near Leeds, on August 19 at 3pm.

Written by Laura Turner, with music and lyrics by Richard Main and Turner, this adaptation involves six children in the 1940s deciding to perform their own version of the fairytale one hot summer’s afternoon with Milky-White the cow and a host of woodland creatures. Children and adults alike are invited to come in fancy dress for the fairytale parade during the interval.

The battle of the sexes is in full swing in Andrew Ashenden’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew at Hazlewood Castle, Paradise Lane, near Tadcaster, on Tuesday at 7pm. In a comic tale of tricks, tantrums and lovers’ tiffs, feisty Katherina meets her match in Petruchio, who slowly manages to woo the shrew with a somewhat unconventional courtship.

Flitting fairies, forest-bound lovers and raucous tradesmen all play their part in this romantic comedy, as will music written especially for Shakespeare’s magical verse.

An evening of Regency romantic turmoil is promised in Rebecca Gadsby’s production of Sense And Sensibility at Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, on August 13 and the Museum Gardens, York, on September 8, both at 7pm. Laura Turner’s stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel follows sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood as they make their first forays into the excitingly decadent world of 18th-century high society. Falling in love and making mistakes, they experience heartbreak for the first time in their quest to find a balance between sense and sensibility.

Chapterhouse is touring more than 100 British and Irish country houses, castles and heritage sites with five productions – Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream completes the quintet – until September. Tickets for Cranford tonight are available on 01904 687671 and on the door; full ticket details for the tour can be found at chapterhouse.org