The Greeks got it right. When all the elements are in place — a balmy night, a cloudless sky, a slight breeze coming down from the hills — there is no more perfect setting for theater than the great outdoors. Of course, when it comes to places like the U.K. and the season the British laughingly call summer, audiences are more apt to have their theatergoing experience shaped by steady rain, bone-chilling cold and gale-force winds replacing that gentle breeze. But still the tradition holds. This summer, in places ranging from London to a tiny lakeside village in Norway, open-air theater will once again claim its place.

Perhaps the most ambitious outdoor season can be found at London's Globe Theatre, located on the banks of the Thames just 180 m from the site on which Shakespeare's 16th-17th century theatrical home once stood. This year's offerings (the season runs through Sept. 23) include a highly acclaimed production of King Lear ("a revelation," in the words of one London critic), Macbeth and Cymbeline.

Weather permitting, London's Open Air Theatre, a lovely 1,187-seat venue in Regent's Park, also has an extensive season on offer, including productions of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Love's Labour's Lost, as well as Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance and Frank Loesser's 'Where's Charley?'. Meanwhile, down in the Cornish town of Porthcurno, the Minack Theatre presents a summer-long series of plays ranging from Beowulf to The Importance of Being Earnest on an outdoor stage built into the rocky coastline, with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.

One of Europe's most impressive ruins, the 850-year-old Abbey of Villers-la-Ville in Belgium, offers a striking setting for a new French-language production of Alexandre Dumas' La Reine Margot July 18-Aug. 18. The play, staged by Belgian-American director Stephen Shank, will be performed in three parts, with the audience moving along with the actors from the abbey's former cemetery, to its choir and then finally to its nave.

In the lush, hilly landscape of the Ardenne some 26 km from Liège, the Belgian town of Spa hosts a 12-day long theater festival, including many street performances. Five new plays will be premiered, and there will also be revivals of works by such contemporary Belgian authors as Philippe Blasband and Denis Lumborg.

Among the offerings at this year's Avignon Festival (July 6-28) is a production of Molière's The School for Wives, being presented in the Cour d'Honneur of the historic Palais des Papes (July 6-16; Tel: 33 (0)4 90 14 14 26; www.festival-avignon.com/en). And in Angers, in the Loire Valley, an outdoor theater festival will run from June 21 to July 14, with performance spaces ranging from the court in front of the 11th century Château du Plessis-Macé to a 15th century arena carved out of an ancient stone quarry.

Staging Hamlet in the courtyard of Denmark's Kronburg Castle in Elsinore is a tradition that started in 1939 with a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company, starring John Gielgud as the melancholy Dane. Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Kenneth Branagh have also trekked to this historic site to offer their own interpretations. This year's Hamlet opens a three-week Shakespearean festival (Aug. 1-18) that also includes Stephen Berkoff's solo performance, Shakespeare's Villains, and is directed by the highly praised Lithuanian Eimuntas Nekrosius. (Helsingør, Denmark; Tel: +45 49 28 20 46; www.hamletsommer.dk)

Fans of Ibsen, not to mention those who want a chance to brush up on their Norwegian, might want to head to the charming village of Vinstra, Norway, where six performances of Peer Gynt (Aug. 3-11), with accompanying music by Edvard Grieg, will be staged along the banks of Galavatnet Lake. The cast is a mixture of top Norwegian actors and local amateurs. The shows are already sold out, but returns are possible. (Tel: +47 61 29 47 79; www.peergynt.no/stemnet in Norwegian)

The streets of Kracow are being transformed into a sprawling stage next month for the 14th Street Theater Festival (July 5-8), with companies from France, Poland and the Ukraine among those joining the festivities.

Finally, consider a trip to where it all began roughly 2,500 years ago. As part of the Athens Festival (June 6-Sept. 25), six tragedies by Greece's three greatest dramatists — Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides — will be performed in the ancient Greek theater of Epidauros from July 6-Sept. 1, along with three comedies by Aristophanes, including The Clouds.