CASTLE Howard is hosting a Beatrix Potter-themed extravaganza for the May half-term, running from Saturday to June 3.

Taking part throughout the week will be Easingwold company Gobbledigook Theatre, who are combining with publishers Frederick Warne & Co to present The Tales Of Beatrix Potter, an hour-long interactive theatre production for all ages, at 11am, 2pm and 5pm daily.

"Here is your chance to join Beatrix Potter and some of her most beloved characters in a show full of songs, sonnets and stories," says producer Phil Grainger.

"With our national reputation for creating imaginative twists on classic family stories, Gobbledigook are staging a show inspired by three of Potter's favourite tales, The Tale Of Pie And The Patty Pan, The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers and The Tale Of Ginger And Pickles. The star of the show, however, is Beatrix Potter: we get a wonderful insight into Beatrix's life, how the world-famous stories began and the enormous achievements in her 77 years."

Grainger is joined in the production team by writer-director Alexander Wright, who directed Gobbledigook's Enid Blyton show The Famous Five at The Mill in Stillington and the RHS Harlow Carr gardens in Harrogate last year.

"Ever since our Famous Five production, we've wanted to make work that is inspired by and based on classic English tales, something everyone knows, and loves, and let our challenge be bringing it to life, and to a modern audience while keeping the heart of it where it belongs. The Tales Of Beatrix Potter was perfect for this," says Alexander.

Phil rejoins: "This is a show about finding your home, and with many of the same team from our previous productions, such as Alexander and Tabitha Grove, our costume designer for The Wind In The Willows at Bolton Abbey in 2016, we feel at home at Castle Howard in these stories."

The production team also includes creative consultant Thomas Merrington and stage manager Sandie Tanner Smith and the cast comprises Tom Figgins, Anna Soden, Humphrey Sitima and Isabella Hayward.

York Press:

Gobbledigook Theatre in the Castle Howard rose garden

Castle Howard's Beatrix Potter extravaganza also will feature indoor and outdoor trails each day at the stately home, plus an appearance from Peter Rabbit on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday.

"Beatrix Potter's animal friends will be taking up residence throughout the house as part of an indoor trail and the live characters from our show will be on hand for you to meet in the gardens before each performance," says Phil. "You can also take part in an outdoor hunt around our very own Mr McGregor's walled garden."

Four months of correspondence and negotiation with Penguin publishers went into securing the rights to perform a selection of Beatrix Potter's tales. "Two things made them say yes," says Phil. "Firstly we are doing it at Castle Howard, which gave us clout, and, secondly, when they asked me what the show was about, I said we'd be telling the story of Beatrix Potter and how she came to write these stories.

"All it's been licensed for so far is this run at Castle Howard, where we'll be doing it in the rose garden – where there's a vegetable patch! – but we will have the rights to do it elsewhere and overseas too."

Alexander combined childhood and adulthood in writing the script. "Obviously I know the stories from being a child, and as an adult I've now learned about Beatrix Potter and the things she did when fighting to be recognised as a female author and as a campaigner for conservation [in the Lake District] and looking after the welfare of farmers. To do so much for the rural community, as she did, was amazing."

Alexander is "always obsessed with an author's life and why they wrote", but "I'm also channelling my inner Mike Kenny [the York playwright who adapted The Railway Children] to tell the story in a way that is fun and interactive, finding a way to both tell the Potter stories and her own story too," he says.

"This is how we roll as theatre makers, going from a heavy Greek play, Orpheus, that Phil and I did in the Grecian Hall at Castle Howard in April, to doing children's stories by Beatrix Potter in the rose garden."

Gobbledigook Theatre in The Tales Of Beatrix Potter, Castle Howard (rose garden), near York, May 26 to June 3, 11am, 2pm and 5pm daily. Box office: castlehoward.co.uk or 01653 648621.