Oddsocks Productions, formed in 1989 by husband & wife team Andy Barrow and Elli Mackenzie, have developed a reputation for bringing the fun side of Shakespeare into the open - quite literally. This month, the company tours their new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream to a selection of outdoor Midlands venues, promising a high-energy, feelgood show for all the family. Although this particular version will be shaken up for a modern audience, it's still definitely Shakespeare - as founder Elli explains to What's On ...

Midlands-based fans of Oddsocks Productions know they're in for a good time when the summer season rolls around and the company's latest off-the-wall Shakespeare adaptation arrives in the region. Oddsocks have toured regularly for over 35 years, visiting outdoor venues with adventurous, inclusive and highly entertaining versions of centuries-old plays.

For anyone who has yet to experience one of their offerings, now might be the time to give it a go. This year's summer tour features a new production of Shakespeare's magical comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream - billed as great fun for anyone from age seven to 107 - with transformed tradesmen, star-crossed lovers and a sprinkling of fairy mischief.

"Giving people an opportunity to see Shakespeare, and not see it as something that's unapproachable, is part of our mission," says Oddsocks co-founder Elli Mackenzie. "It's always a joy when we do a play which parents will be able to say to their children, 'I know this one - it's a fun one!' It's a good introduction to Shakespeare."

Even if you're an Oddsocks regular, Elli is confident that this production will be unlike any version of the play that you've seen before.

"Athens becomes the Taste of Athens restaurant, and the lovers are actually on their first dates! It's still Shakespeare, it's still the text, it's still a huge amount of fun, but it's taken from a very modern perspective. The play within the play - featuring the 'rude mechanicals', who in our production are the kitchen staff - is hilarious, because Shakespeare was a genius. There's very little you need to do to it to make it work. If you've seen A Midsummer Night's Dream before, I can guarantee you've never seen it this way."

When choosing which Shakespeare plays to perform, the Oddsocks team are conscious that much has changed since the author put quill to parchment - so they create a show which is suitably pitched to a modern crowd.

"Even in A Midsummer Night's Dream, we're making some changes, to make it more palatable for a contemporary audience. Four hundred and fifty years ago, what was acceptable to white, middle-aged playwrights and their theatre-goers is perhaps less so now - we're in the 21st century, and a little bit different. The nice thing is that we can be flexible with Shakespeare, just as long as we use the text, we make sense of it, and we don't make decisions which take it so far removed that people can't follow it."

Oddsocks is something of a family endeavour. Elli and her husband, Andy Barrow, founded the company in 1989 after beginning their artistic collaboration (and relationship) at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

"I've spent more of my life with Andy than not, and vice versa. The fact is, right from drama school, when we were in the same class, we have worked together - it's natural for us. It happens by osmosis now."

While the majority of performances in the tour take place in the open air, last month the company made a stop-off at a more traditional venue: Coventry's Belgrade Theatre. This has a practical impact - not least that the company aren't building their own stage. It also creates an environment where the actors can fine-tune their performances.

"The difference is that it's more intimate indoors. From a performer's point of view, there's more nuance. Small pauses, flicks of the eye, and small expressions go for nothing when you're working in a large, open-air space, with shouting peacocks, dogs, people walking past, and 500 people up a hill. You have to be really clear. It has to be bold and it has to carry."

Another factor when performing outdoors is the unpredictable weather. However, while gathering clouds might make an audience member reach for their brolly and waterproofs, it rarely puts a damper on the Oddsocks spirit.

"About 36 years we've been touring. Over each of those tours, we do between 54 and 56 performances throughout the summer in the UK and the Channel Islands, in 29 venues. I can count on one hand the number of times we've had to cancel - and that's usually been down to the fact that the audience can't get to the venue because of flooding. Usually, we carry on whatever the weather. It's a really important part of the audition process that we find actors who are prepared to work like that. Understandably, not every actor is.

"We're friends with actors who first worked with us in the early 1990s. In fact, our daughter is making a documentary about Oddsocks and our journey."

The company is raising money for the film with a GoFundMe campaign entitled Oddsocks At 35.

"She's touching base with a lot of actors who worked with us over many years, whose highlights are times of the worst weather; when the audience, diminished down to a sturdy 20 to 30, would sit there under whatever circumstances."

The theatrical fun continues with a second, non-Shakespearean tour for 2025. This autumn, Oddsocks present a new (indoor) offering: Florence Nightingale - The Lady With The Hammer. The show is inspired in part by the company's rehearsal space - a chapel that once belonged to Florence's family.

"We were working with an actor who plays her at the Florence Nightingale Museum in London - that's her day job - so her knowledge of this lady is incredible. It just seemed to come together, and we thought 'Let's investigate ... ' We realised what an amazing woman she was."

One of the company's aims when creating productions like A Midsummer Night's Dream is to pitch the show to appeal to audiences of any age. And Oddsocks' relationship with their punters, Elli says, is key to striking that balance.

"As soon as people arrive, we're out there, we're talking to them, we're selling programmes, we're welcoming them. It's important for our team to feel like we're hosts of a party ... And people become familiar faces, and grew up with us. It's important to us that our plays speak to both children and adults. And it's true that there are things that go above the children's heads - it's not a children's show. It works best when it's an age mix."

And when it comes down to it, for Elli, the ability to make connections between people - on and off the stage - is the company's highest accomplishment.

"For me, our biggest achievement is bringing people together, in all its forms ... We now have 11 'Oddsocks children' - people who might not exist had their parents not met whilst working with us. We have networks of people that get together just to come and see our shows."

A Midsummer Night's Dream shows at Birmingham's Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) on Sat 5 July; Avoncroft Museum, Bromsgrove, on Sun 6 July; Bowring Park, Telford, on Thurs 10 July and Compton Verney, Warwickshire, on Fri 11 July