20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2009

 It’s Throwback Thursday time again and this week we’re looking back at 2009 – a year of new artists, new creative voices and a brand-new initiative that changed the course of Bard in the Botanics forever.

The season opened with Artistic Director, Gordon Barr’s new production of “The Taming of the Shrew”. Building on his 2004 version of the controversial comedy, the modern dress production set the play in a vacuous image-obsessed modern world where conformity to the “norm” was prized and marriage represented an opportunity to solidify status and wealth. In this superficial society, Kate & Petruchio were two larger than life figures, both damaged and difficult but infinitely more interesting than the people who surround them. The play became a story of two outsiders, struggling to break down their barriers, to communicate and treat each other with respect – and while the production did not shy away from the horrible way in which Petruchio treated Kate, the ending suggested a new beginning for the pair on a more equal footing away from the societal constraints of their “friends” and family.

Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, was persuaded back to the stage to play Kate and achieved a minor miracle in turning the character’s final speech of capitulation into a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of the society she lived in – shaming Grant O’Rourke’s Petruchio into considering whether he really wanted a wife who would sublimate her personality to play the “game” society asks of women. It was a stunning reinvention of a deeply troubling piece of writing and a reminder of what a powerful performer Jennifer is, in addition to her creativity & skill as a director.

Jennifer Dick (Kate) & Company in “The Taming of the Shrew” (2009)

 That skill would be on display in the show’s second outdoor performance – “Macbeth”. This would be Jennifer’s first “mainstage” production for the company and she created a powerful version of Shakespeare’s well-loved tragedy. Staged on the back lawn of the Botanic Gardens, this “Macbeth” was set firmly in its period, in a world of clans where witches weren’t sinister, occult figures but healers and members of the community with sight beyond the norm. The sense of a community was important to Jennifer’s concept for the story. As she wrote in her Director’s Notes – “With this production I want to create a sense of community. A feeling that these characters don’t function in a vacuum but are part of a tribal culture. That they are connected to each other and that one person’s actions reverberate throughout the community.”

The company of “Macbeth” (2009)

 Bard in the Botanics Associate Artists, Paul Cunningham & Beth Marshall led the company as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, utilising their incredible talent to bring a real depth of humanity to the pair and their relationship. The ensemble was augmented by a new strand of our “B in the Park” programme – this time entitled “B in the Big Show”, it saw 3 young performers join the main acting company to portray the show’s younger characters.

The third show in the season saw the company return to the Kibble Palace as a performance venue but offered something new for audiences. 2009’s “Richard III”, directed by Gordon Barr, would become the first in a long line of “Lesser-Spotted Shakespeare” shows staged in the glasshouse. With a smaller audience capacity and a traverse seating arrangement, the Kibble Palace would become the company’s studio theatre space, allowing us to stage titles that are less well-known to audiences and, consequently, introduce them to a wider range of Shakespeare’s work. Small casts & small production budgets were necessary to make these studio shows work and “Richard III” – with a cast of only 3 actors and a budget of £200 – established a template which continues today.

Seeing a show in the Kibble Palace is a unique experience for audiences – they are often only inches away from the actors and the intensity of sharing a story so intimately is like nothing else. What began as an experiment with “Richard III” – can you stage one of Shakespeare’s longest plays that has one of his most extensive cast lists with only 3 people? – has become a core part of our work and it is a testament to that first Kibble Palace acting company (Grant O’Rourke in the title role, Nicole Cooper & Mark Prendergast) that the show was such a huge success.

Grant O’Rourke in the title role of “Richard III” (2009)

  Looking back on 2009, Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, had this to say:

“2009 was such a significant year from me at Bard in the Botanics.  It was the first year I directed a full production for the company and I had a blast working with some very talented performers, who taught me so much about directing. That summer also marked a return to acting for me, after a few years away. I was initially hesitant to take on the role of Kate, because the play is problematic for me. But it felt like a challenge I couldn’t miss out on. I found a way of playing her that I felt utterly empowered by, in the end, which I’m still very proud of. I also remember we had a heatwave while rehearsing Macbeth during the day, and playing Shrew in the evenings, which was both wonderful and completely exhausting!”

FUN FACTS:

- 2009 saw a number of our current Associate Artists make their Bard in the Botanics’ debut. Two recent design graduates joined the company that year – Carys Hobbs designing costumes for “Shrew” & “Macbeth” and Gillian Argo, designing the set for “Shrew”. Their creative brilliance belied their early career status and their work has established the visual aesthetic for Bard in the Botanics ever since, with Carys currently operating as the company’s Head of Design.

- The company’s current Production Manager, Sam Ramsay, also joined us for the first time in 2009 as Deputy Stage Manager for “Shrew” & “Macbeth” while core Acting Ensemble member, Nicole Cooper, made her Bard debut in “Richard III”. Nicole has become a firm fixture at Bard in the Botanics since then, taking on many of Shakespeare’s greatest roles, including Viola, Ophelia, Rosalind, Cassius, Portia, Timon of Athens, Isabella, Cleopatra, Beatrice, Hamlet and her award-winning performance in the title role of Coriolanus.

- Nicole shares the record for the most characters played in a single production with her “Richard III” co-star, Mark Prendergast. They each played 6 individual characters in the show!

- We were delighted to welcome Grant O’Rourke to the 2009 company to play the roles of Petruchio & Richard III. Grant is an award-winning stage & screen actor, equally at home in both comedy & drama – and is perhaps best-known for his much-loved role as Rupert MacKenzie in 3 seasons of “Outlander”.

- 2009’s “Macbeth” featured, perhaps, the most thrilling piece of stage violence seen at Bard in the Botanics. From opposite ends of the lawn, the murderer Seyton hurled a dagger at Tom Duncan’s Banquo, stabbing him in the chest – of course it was a clever piece of stage trickery (we try not to actually stab actors!) but we’re not going to reveal how we did it – suffice to say, it never failed to generate gasps of shock from the audience!

- The period costumes of “Macbeth” led one reviewer to comment that the production must have been sponsored by a maker of Harris Tweed – we didn’t like to reveal that they were actually made from “removal blankets”, all dyed by hand to give a luxurious look to the outfits!

2009 COMPANY:

Gillian Argo (Set Design – Shrew); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Kenny Blyth (Actor); Amie Burns Walker (Actor); Kerry Cleland (Actor); Nicole Cooper (Actor); Paul Cunningham (Actor); Jennifer Dick (Director – Macbeth; Actor); Tom Duncan (Actor); Jonathan Fegan (Actor); Kay Hesford (Festival Manager); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design – Shrew & Macbeth); Beth Marshall (Actor); Stephen McGonigle (Actor); Trish Mullin (Actor); Grant O’Rourke (Actor); Mark Prendergast (Actor); Sam Ramsay (Deputy Stage Manager); Gillian Smith (Set Design – Macbeth); Ben Winger (Actor)