War & Peace - Open Air Theatre - Burtown House

Gift Horse Theatre present War & Peace as an open-air theatre event. Our dynamic cast of eight will tackle this nineteenth-century epic, guiding you through a hundred characters, two wars, and thirteen hundred pages - all in the space of two and a half hours. This is an accessible adaptation that is playful and modern in spirit, featuring live music and dance. Balls, gunfights, marriages, death, and vodka: we will show you the best - and worst - parts of Tolstoy’s story.

Following a successful tour of outdoor venues around Dublin in the summer of 2021, Gift Horse are back at Burtown House this summer. The performance will be on an intimate scale with the audience sitting in the garden with the actors - there is very limited preset seating available, so please bring your own picnic blankets or picnic chairs. You can, of course, also bring picnics if you like, but we ask you to remember that the venue is a living space and so to ensure you clean up all rubbish and leave the space as you found it. The running time of the show is two and a half hours with a short interval. If you have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact us at gifthorsetheatre@gmail.com with specific requirements.

In case of rain, please bring your own umbrellas and raincoats; there will be no cover provided by the venue. We perform whatever the weather and we encourage you to still come along if the weather turns out to be less than ideal. In case of extreme weather warnings, we will update you by email and refund your ticket if necessary. There are parking and toilet facilities available.

Gift Horse Theatre is a Dublin-based theatre company that creates playful, forward-thinking, environmentally-conscious theatre. Gift Horse breathes new life into stories past and present with a bold, fresh style that incorporates dance, new music, puppetry, and lively storytelling. Gift Horse is a member of the Staging Change network and is passionate about creating theatre that respects and celebrates our natural environment.

"One of the best ways to be introduced to a literary classic [...] An upcoming theatre company filled with talented" - Babylon Radio

"This play then was nothing short of excellent. It was poignant, witty, and powerful and somehow managed to relate its ageing dialogue to twentieth-first century youths" - University Times