Brownsea Open Air Theatre

Brownsea Open Air Theatre (commonly abbreviated B.O.A.T) is an open-air Shakespearian theatre company based in Poole, Dorset that have performed large theatrical productions since 1964. Annually performing a play from the extensive works of William Shakespeare for three weeks in July and August, the production is set on the National Trust's Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour with boats transporting patrons to the island from Poole Quay.

The Merchant of Venice, 2008

Marie Bushell as Rosalind in As You Like It in 2017

Proceeds from the production are donated to The National Trust for whom B.O.A.T have so far raised over £250,000.

Recent productions include Hamlet, The Taming Of The Shrew, Julius Caesar and Love's Labour's Lost. In 2013 their 50th Season was celebrated with A Midsummer Night's Dream and Pericles, followed in 2014 by Henry IV, part 1 and Henry IV, part 2 (combined into a single production), and then The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen Of Verona and As You Like It.

For a single season in 2006/7 B.O.A.T Ashore was established when the company's committee agreed that a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (in Shakespeare's original words) could be produced under the B.O.A.T banner on the mainland. The production ran in early 2007 throughout Dorset.

B.O.A.T. were part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Open Stages project in 2012, participating in workshops and performing an excerpt from their 2011 production of Julius Caesar . They took part in Open Stages 2014 with a combined version of Henry IV, part 1 and Henry IV, part 2, one scene of which they performed at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon