The evenings may be drawing in, but that doesn’t mean the open-air theatre season is coming to its end.

There are few things to beat listening to marvellous music or being transported by a gripping story as the light fades and the harvest moon rises out of the sea.

You just might need to start packing gloves and a blanket for your theatre visit as the year moves on.

Say a fond farewell to summer with cool jazz played by the Cornish based Simon Latarche Trio and nights of sublime Opera Under the Stars, when three exceptional young professional soloists will be presenting a programme of entrancing duets and arias from Mozart to Lehar and Puccini to Gilbert & Sullivan.

As the season turns to autumn and we look back at a year which has upended so many norms, there’s a definite whiff of alternative history about the Minack’s programme.

Kernow King, and star of the BAFTA-winning film Bait, will be making a special visit to the Minack for two nights only with his Greatest Hits stand-up comedy show, in which no aspect of Cornwall escapes his eye, from the greatest to the slightly less great things about being Cornish.

When the shadows grow, what better than to snuggle up with a cup of cocoa and enjoy some Dark Stories.

A mixture of music, dance and storytelling, presented by Krill, it draws on some of Cornwall’s finest creative talent to create an evening inspired by the events of lockdown, that is bitter-sweet, playful, insightful, and perhaps sometimes a little bit scary.

On the lighter side there are two very popular shows for children and families.

Escape to the idyllic world of the English riverbank as The Wind in the Willows is brought to life by Illyria, in their uniquely warm, funny and heartfelt style.

And during October half term there’s a great opportunity to discover some surprising facts about British history, when Horrible Histories present a tour around the high (and low) lights of the last couple of millennia in ‘Barmy Britain’.

And if you like your history with a bit more bite, there are two further historical sagas in the season.

Loveplay, by Moira Buffini, is a darkly satirical snapshot of the changing nature of sexual relations across 2000 years of English society, while Living Spit’s Six Wives of Henry VIII brings a wickedly funny, contemporary spin to the matrimonial troubles of the much-married monarch.

Both of these shows are suitable for adults and mature teenagers only.

For information and to book for all Minack performances, daytime storytelling and visits to the theatre see www.minack.com