FRONT Room Productions favour creating intimate and innovative theatre in alternative locations, the latest being the new open-air arts venue of Dunstarn Farm, in Dunstarn Lane, Adel, where the Leeds company are presenting Twelfth Night today to Sunday.

"It's a fully functioning farm, owned by Nicky Burrows, who was one of our stewards when we did Oliver Twist in Leeds Kirkgate Market in January," says artistic director Olivia Race.

"There were 250 sheep on the farm when I came here in the lambing season! There's a lot of land, going down into woodland, which we'll be using in our promenade version of Shakespeare's comedy, and Dunstarn Farm has big plans for the future to develop a stage space in the woodland to make it a wonderful open-air venue for Leeds."

Front Room are staging a "bite-sized, abridged and approachable" two-hour adaptation of Twelfth Night that uses the original Shakespeare script, but transports the setting to a modern-day Yorkshire farm with modern dress and new musical arrangements of familiar pop hits.

The aim is to please both Shakespearean purists and newcomers alike, in the vein of Amy Leach's all-action staging of Romeo And Juliet at the West Yorkshire Playhouse earlier this year.

"Our show leads audiences around its rural setting, taking innovative inspiration from its location," says Olivia. "With it being a promenade production, the actors will take the audience from scene to scene, explaining what's going on, and those in-between-scenes moments will be a chance to ask questions too."

Outlining her updating of Twelfth Night, the director says: "In our version Viola and Sebastian are framed as city-slicker siblings; Orsino as a local farming tycoon; Olivia, an ill-suited country girl, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, a try-hard hipster.

"We unearth the modern-day idiosyncrasies in Shakespeare’s language, creating a contemporary yet faithful production intended to make the Bard’s brilliance accessible to modern-day audiences."

What happens in Twelfth Night, Olivia? "City-slicker siblings Viola and Sebastian have been stranded on the strange and foreign shores of Illyria: home to farmers, country folk and a great deal of sheep," she says.

"You’d think locals Olivia and Orsino might help them out, but they have problems of their own. Viola, desperately seeking Sebastian, soon becomes embroiled in a series of complicated love-triangles and ludicrous misunderstandings, fit to rival even the most baffling of modern day rom-coms. As emotions run high in a flourish of cross-dressing capers and musical madness, will Viola ever find her brother?"

Olivia set up Front Room Productions during her student days reading English Literature at Durham University, writing her first adaptation of Oliver Twist for performances in Durham Indoor Market last year, since when she has returned to Leeds, re-launching her company in the West Yorkshire city in January.

Summing up her theatre practice, she says: "Front Room Productions exists to create theatre in unconventional spaces, staging high-quality, intimate theatre where you least expect to find it. We first made an impression on Leeds with our acclaimed adaptation of Oliver Twist, staged in Kirkgate Market, which transported audiences to Dickens’s London via the Victorian aesthetic of the space.

"More recently, we staged a series of Pop-Up Shakespeare performances as part of Love Your Local Market Week, entertaining shoppers with Shakespeare’s most famous scenes on demand. The company is immensely proud to have roots in West Yorkshire and endeavours to stage productions that showcase and celebrate the wealth of talented performers working across the region."

Twelfth Night is being performed on various sites around Dunstarn Farm. "As audience members need to walk from site to site, sturdy footwear is advised," says Olivia. "You're encouraged to arrive early and relax with a picnic and drink before the performance starts.

"Doors open at 1pm for performances at 2.30pm on Saturday and Sunday and at 5.30pm for performances at 7pm each night and there'll be a bar serving soft and alcoholic drinks at the venue. Once you have booked your ticket, further information will be sent via email in advance of the performances."

Olivia is playing Viola and Maria and joining her in the cast are Sam Gannon as Sebastian, Riana Duce as Olivia, Alex Prescot as Orsino and Sir Andrew, Steve Banks as Malvolio and Leanne Rowley as Dame Tobiana and Antonia.

Tickets cost £12, concessions £10, at frontroomproductions.co.uk. Parking will be available on site.