20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2006

It’s that time again – Throwback Thursday – and this week, we’re casting our minds back to our 5th anniversary season in 2006!

Although the season had no official “theme”, as the company continued exploring its artistic identity, the 2006 programme saw us produce a programme of work that explored new frontiers & new worlds.

Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, directed our 2 mainstage productions that year – two titles that came from the beginning and end of Shakespeare’s career as a playwright, both of which saw their characters go on significant and literal journeys as they travelled towards their “happy ever after”.

The first title – “The Comedy of Errors” – saw the company turn back time to the swinging 60’s in a production that fully embraced the play’s influence down on the centuries on Whitehall farces & Carry On… films. As design conversations honed in on the play’s farcical essence, so its physical world was distilled down to the very physical essence of farce – doors! A set of several freestanding doors allowed the madcap action to flow across the lawn of the Botanic Gardens as a series of outlandish characters spun through the action of the play (literally, in the case of the revolving doors that were included in the set!)

Donald Pirie (Antipholus of Syracuse) & David Rennie-Fitzgerald (Dromio of Syracuse) in The Comedy of Errors, 2006

The second half of the season saw the company tackle Shakespeare’s late romance – “The Winter’s Tale” – in a beautiful & heartfelt production. Set on a rough wooden stage with a simple red curtain strung across the back, the actors appeared as a troupe of 19th 19th century travelling players, sharing the story with the audience in a simple but effective style. As director, Gordon Barr, wrote in his programme notes – “If we’ve done our job right, then Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction, “Exit pursued by a bear” won’t need me lumbering out of the bushes in a big furry costume to make it real – we won’t need that level of literalism, just the audience’s imagination.”

The company of The Winter’s Tale, 2006

2006 saw Associate Artist, Jennifer Dick, make her directing debut with the company. Having established herself as a great classical actor of tremendous power in our early years, she was ready for a new challenge and became the first recipient of our occasional “Emerging Artists Directors Award”. Over the years, Jennifer has proven herself an exceptional director, always ready to take risks and push the boundaries with Shakespeare and she set her stall out early in her first ever show – “this fearful country”. The production used text from “The Tempest” to create an imagined prologue to that story, exploring the relationship between Prospero and Caliban from the moment of Prospero’s arrival on the island where Caliban lives to the titular storm of Shakespeare’s play.

Eric Robertson as Prospero with Tom Duncan as Caliban in “this fearful country…”, 2006

Finally, we were thrilled to welcome acclaimed artist and theatre maker, David Leddy, to Bard in the Botanics in 2006. His audio play – “Susurrus” – allowed audience members to listen to the piece on headphones as they followed a map around the Botanic Gardens where, in David’s own words, “like a radio tuning in and out of different wavelengths, you hear speakers tell stories about botany, opera & memorial benches. As time goes on, their anecdotes fit together into a piece that is part radio play, part avant-garde sonic art, part botany lesson and part stroll in the park”. Over the past year, with theatres closed to audiences, there has been a real rise in this style of performance – we will always be incredibly proud that 15 years ago, we were able to give a home & a platform to David’s ground-breaking piece that, like all his work, was very much ahead of its time! Since its debut in 2006, “Susurrus” has played around the world – we’re delighted we were able to host its premiere.

2006 also saw the company produce work outside of its summer season again – this time co-producing a new version of Scott Palmer’s “Infinite Variety” with Cumbernauld Theatre. Directed by Gordon Barr and with a cast consisting of Sarah Chalcroft, Rachel Colles, Jennifer Dick & Nicki Walsh, this new production took full advantage of its theatrical setting. As the female characters of Shakespeare took to the stage in an emotional journey from young love to mature loss, the production moved physically from the aesthetic of the rehearsal room to a fully costumed performance in a beautifully inventive marriage of form & content, imagined by designer, Sarah Paulley & lighting designer, Pete Searle.

From L to R: Rachel Colles (Constance); Nicki Walsh (Cleopatra); Jennifer Dick (Mistress Quickly) & Sarah Chalcroft (Lady Anne) in the “Be Absolute for Death” section of Infinite Variety at Cumbernauld Theatre, 2006

Looking back on the fifth anniversary season, Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, had this to say:

“I really remember 2006 being of the most artistically satisfying experiences I’d had with the company to date. Kicking the year off with the brilliant actresses of “Infinite Variety” and then following that with a summer of great shows, brilliant performances, and real risks for the company. Artists like Jennifer Dick & David Leddy were showing me the full artistic potential of engaging imaginatively with Shakespeare’s work while actors like Paul Cunningham & Beth Marshall were releasing the full comic madness & the heartbreaking beauty of his writing. After 3 years as Artistic Director, it felt like I was really starting to see what my Bard in the Botanics looked like.”

FUN FACTS:

- As some of the company’s original actors, directors & production staff started to move on to new horizons, some brilliant new artists made their Bard in the Botanics’ debut in 2006 – most notably Honorary Associate Artists, Paul Cunningham & Beth Marshall, who would gone to play an incredibly important role in the company’s development in the ensuing years.

- Paul Cunningham (like Nicki Walsh before him in 2003) had a baptism of fire in his first season. Originally employed to play Antipholus of Ephesus in “The Comedy of Errors” and Camillo in “The Winter’s Tale”, he found himself taking on the immensely difficult leading role of Leontes in the second play just 10 days before opening night when illness forced our original actor to pull out of the season. What seemed like a Herculean task was carried off with great skill & aplomb by Paul as he turned in a beautiful (and word perfect!) performance – we have no idea how he did it!

- 2006 also saw the company introduce our “Emerging Artists Actors” scheme, offering actors new to the industry or still in training an opportunity to take on a professional role. The first recipient of that scheme – playing Florizel in “The Winter’s Tale” – was a young Scottish actor in his second year of training at RCS, called Richard Madden! Whatever happened to him, eh? You know, apart from winning a Golden Globe in The Bodyguard, starring as Cinderella’s Prince, suffering a very grisly fate in Game of Thrones, and joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe for their upcoming film, Eternals – so not much then! We’d love to take credit for Richard’s success since then but even at that stage he was an actor of great charisma and talent – we’ve been thrilled to watch his career blossom.

2006 COMPANY:

Kirk Bage (Actor), Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Kenny Blyth (Actor); Fi Carrington (Wardrobe Supervisor); Sarah Chalcroft (Actor); Paul Christie (Composer); Rachel Colles (Actor); Paul Cunningham (Actor); Jennifer Dick (Actor / Director – this fearful country); Tom Duncan (Actor); Jonathan Fegan (Actor); Brian Gardiner (Designer – The Comedy of Errors); Kirsty Mackay (Designer – The Winter’s Tale); Richard Madden (Actor); Beth Marshall (Actor); Michael Osborne (Stage Manager); Sarah Paulley (Designer – Infinite Variety); Donald Pirie (Actor); Luisa Prosser (Actor); David Rennie-Fitzgerald (Actor); Eric Robertson (Actor); Johanne Scoular (Actor); Pete Searle (Lighting Design – Infinite Variety); Laura Spring (Wardrobe Assistant); Nicki Walsh (Actor)