About us

The Garden Theatre Festival returns for a record breaking 5th year with high-energy performance, endless multi-rolling, talented live musicians and hilarious takes on great British classics. This is Bath’s summer event of the year. 

Now held annually at The Holburne Museum Gardens, it began in 2020 as a one-off event and has grown into the fully fledged festival we know today. The festival has expanded significantly, becoming a popular and established part of Bath’s cultural calendar. With all performances by a local repertory company of actors.  The festival is now considered Bath's official summer theatre experience.

Held in the beautiful gardens of the Holburne Museum, the festival promises four weeks of innovative performances from our repertory company (previous works include Pride & Prejudice 2025, Sherlock & Watson: A Murder in the Garden 2024,) all set within the enchanting Holburne Museum Gardens. There’s something for everyone to enjoy.

This year, the repertory  company will be presenting their version of Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest and off the back of the hugely successive Pride & Prejudice (Transfering to Bath Abbey, April 2026) another Jane Austen's Classic, Sense and Sensibility, with Hugh Grant foppishness and Kate Winslet Charm. Our friends from The Pandits Theatre company return with another fun-filled-family adventure; The Big Bad Wolf, full of Rock n Roll, punk attitude and some serious silliness.


At the Garden Theatre Festival, you can bring your own blankets, cushions, and camping chairs, or hire a deck chair for the full experience. Enjoy a refreshing drink from the bar, onsite catering or tuck in to your own picnic if you’d prefer. 

This is the Garden Theatre festival's biggest and most exciting year yet.

 We shall see you in the garden!

Matthew Emeny, our Artistic Director, is thrilled to welcome everyone back for the festival’s 5th year:

“We’re so excited to return in 2026 with a fantastic lineup of theatre that we know our audiences will love. After successfully bringing back the rep theatre model to Bath last year we can’t wait to share our next wonderful in-house productions.

Each year we grow and develop, this year our productions will be fully in-the-round, creating better sight lines for everyone! I’m looking forward to welcoming everyone again for another unforgettable summer of incredible theatre!”

Matthew is the creative producer of The Production Garden, a rapidly growing theatre production house, creating and touring live events across the UK and internationally. More about TPG can be found at www.theproductiongarden.co.uk

  • Samuel Freeman

    Actor / Musical Director

  • Leela Bunce

    Actor

  • Stan Elliot

    Actor

  • Flossie Ure

    Actor

  • Matthew Emeny

    Artistic Director

Samuel trained at Bath Spa School of Music and Performing Arts in 2014 before his career as an actor and theatre creative. He is now an associate artist of The Production Garden, having been a performer and musical director at the festival for Sherlock & Watson: A Murder in the Garden, The Jabberwocky & Other Nonsense and The Wind in the Willows.

Other Theatre includes;

The Wave (Calf 2 Cow), Of Mice and Men (Torch) Awake My Soul (The Production Garden), Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest (Three Inch Fools), The Wizard of Oz, Aladdin (Prime), Aliens Love Underpants, Monstersaurus! (Big Wooden Horse), The Epic Adventures of Robin Hood (Splendid), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Omnibus), Our Baby (Lettuce Dream), After We Danced (No Logo).

TV & Film;

The Young Cannibals (Bad Taste), Breaking the Band (ITV), The Establishment Division 9 (Day Dreams), Assisted (Alema), The White Dwarf (WD Productions), Something To Believe In (R&A).

Freeman has also worked in the research and development of new work as an actor, musician and composer with Calf 2 Cow, Complicité, Hijinx, Dorchester Arts, Extant, Raindance, National Youth Theatre, Pleb, and Lazarus.

Monet Goode

Leela Bunce is an actor-musician, clown and theatre-maker based in Somerset. Her big passion is making humourous, quirky, affecting theatre that shines a light on untold stories. She is currently touring her self-penned show Kith and Kin to heritage venues and history festivals around the UK.

Her previous devised shows include solo clown show Waiting for Stanley (UK tour) and Secrets of the Bluestockings (UK tour).

With other companies, recent credits include early years dance-theatre show Early Weaves (Polka Theatre, UK tour), Shed-ache (aKa dance theatre R&D), Sherlock and Watson: A Murder in the Garden (Calf2Cow UK Tour), The Wave (Calf2Cow UK tour), Apples & Angels (Wassail Theatre, site-specific), The Library of Lost Memories (Shoebox Theatre, SW tour).

Stan is an actor-musician based in Bristol.

Stan's credits include 'The Mumford & Son's Story' with The Production Garden (2025-), various productions with Apricity Theatre, including 'Between The Armies' - an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV (2018) and as a member of The Natural Theatre Company from 2021.

Stan is also a founding member of Mouse Mountain Ensemble, a Bristol-based theatre company, and graduated from the University of the West of England in 2023. He also writes and produces music under his name, Stan Elliott - with his debut E.P to be released later in 2025. 


Flossie is an Actor/Theatre maker based in Bristol.

Her credits include: Terror in Turtlenecks (The Alma), As You Like It (Tour) HUSSY, Georgia and the Iceberg (Tour), Off Peak (Bristol Old Vic), Never Any Fruit (The Rondo), The French Detective and the Blue Dog (The Egg), Enron (Theatre Royal Bath), Merry Wives of Windsor (Theatre Royal Bath). Film/TV includes: Adventurer: Curse of the Midas Box, Mistresses Series 1-3.


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