THERE has been lots of debate recently about what to do with the car park next to Clifford’s Tower. Well, here’s a thought: why not put a modern reproduction of a Shakespearean open-air theatre there, and use it to stage a series of the Bard’s greatest plays?

Sounds like a pipe-dream, right? Wrong. That is precisely what Yorkshire-based Lunchbox Theatrical Productions is proposing to do.

It is planning to put up a temporary reproduction of Shakespeare’s famous wooden Rose Theatre, which once stood in central London. The 1,000-seat, open-roofed theatre will stand in the Castle car park for ten weeks next summer. Four Shakespeare plays will be performed there: Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet and Richard III.

How brilliant is that? York is sometimes accused of not being imaginative enough about embracing new ideas. Well, this proves the doubters wrong.

Lunchbox puts on major West End and Broadway shows. So the quality of the productions at the York Rose theatre will be first class. And the audience will experience them as Shakespeare’s original audiences did 450 years ago. They’ll sit in three tiered galleries around the circumference of the theatre, many almost within touching distance of the actors.

The only downside is that the theatre will be temporary. The season will begin on June 22 next year, and run through to September 2.

Let’s hope the people of York love it so much that it will force the city to do something special with that car park on a permanent basis.