THE Dukes exciting new season is under way with a 30th anniversary celebration and two thought provoking homegrown dramas featured in the programme.

The Lancaster theatre’s reputation for producing the UK’s biggest outdoor walkabout theatre season was recognised last year after its summer sell-out production of The Hobbit, landing a UK Theatre Award for the Best Show for Children and Young People.

For 2017 The Dukes marks three decades of promenading in the park with an adaptation of Treasure Island, giving a thrilling new twist Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale, running from July 4-August 12.

From April 27-May 6, The Dukes will be visiting another 'island' - the one created by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona.

Joining forces once again with The Theatre Chipping Norton, The Dukes presents The Island, a great drama of defiance and determination drawing on stories from Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner for 27 years.

Meanwhile, launching The Dukes homegrown season on February 15, will be the return of the excellent Polly Lister with I Was A Wife.

Written and performed by the 2015 UK Theatre Award-winning actor, the raw and comic journey through marriage is told with the help of characters Polly has portrayed along the way, including the witch she played in The Dukes 2014 outdoor production of Hansel and Gretel.

I Was A Wife, which was a result of The Dukes commitment to new writing, runs from February 15-22 and on March 3-4 before touring nationally.

Up-and-coming young actors from The Dukes youth theatre will play a significant role in the spring season too with their own promenade performance of their newly devised work Generation Z staged in A-wing at Lancaster Castle, a former prison now open to the public and owned by The Queen as Duke of Lancaster.

The Dukes Young Actors will also present a fresh retelling of Macbeth in The Round, directed by JMK Award-winning Liz Stevenson.

Included among the highlights of a packed visiting programme of theatre is Northern Broadsides production of Cyrano, running from March 28-April 1, plus In Your Face Theatre’s 21st anniversary production of Trainspotting from June 1-3.

As well as quality drama, there are plenty of laughter makers heading The Dukes way - Sara Pascoe, Katy Brand, Bridget Christie, Tony Law, Josie Long, Jonny And The Baptists, Rachel Parris and local favourite, Kriss Foster are all bringing their shows to the Lancaster theatre for spring.

Kicking off on February 19 will be Rachel Parris, seen recently at The Dukes as part of the Austentatious cast. She’ll be presenting Best Laid Plans, her one woman show featuring her trademark musical comedy. Kriss Foster And Friends perform songs about taxidermy, the Pencil Museum and the man who feeds other people’s cats in a show which is also full of stories and interesting instruments on February 25.

And hot on their comic heels, Josie Long brings Something Better to the city on March 14, a new show about optimism and hopefulness by the star of Radio 4’s Romance and Adventure.

Box office 01524-598500.