20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2011

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

This week we reach a major milestone in Bard in the Botanics’ history – our 10th anniversary season in 2011!

The company’s work that year would see us stage plays from every genre in Shakespeare’s writing – comedy (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream); tragedy (“Hamlet”); romance (“Pericles”) and history (“The Wars of the Roses”) – celebrating the breadth of the Bard’s genius.

The year began with our first co-production with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s MA Classical & Contemporary Text course. Artistic Director Gordon Barr had already directed productions for the first two years of this course – “King Lear” in 2009 and “The Winter’s Tale” in 2010. In 2011, he was joined by Bard’s Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, and recent recipient of our Emerging Artists Directors Scheme, Marc Silberschatz, to direct an epic cycle of 3 plays under the title of “The Wars of the Roses”. Shakespeare’s Henry VI Parts 1, 2 & 3 were condensed into 2 plays and joined by Richard III to tell a story which spanned from the death of Henry V to the ascension to the throne of Henry VII as England saw itself consumed by civil war and political strife. Each part of the trilogy played separately before coming together to tell the whole story across one day – with Part One starting at 11a.m. and Part 3 finishing that same evening at 11p.m. – an epic and thrilling undertaking and fitting start to our 10th anniversary year.

 To celebrate our milestone anniversary, the company launched a vote to find the “People’s Shakespeare”. Audiences were invited to vote for the title they most wanted to see at the 2011 summer season and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” emerged as the clear favourite. Given the popularity of our 1920’s set musical version from 2003 & 2004, director Gordon Barr chose to offer up a fresh reimagining of this riotous interpretation. The 1920’s setting was retained but the musical numbers were no longer confined to the jazz standards of the Great American Songbook and instead took inspiration from pop songs across the decades. This led to Helena (Nicole Cooper) singing a heartbreaking “torch song” version of Kylie Minogue’s “I Should Be So Lucky”; Puck (Robert Elkin) making his entrance to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and Bottom (Stephen Clyde) letting rip with a full-throated version of Andy William’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” to enthral Beth Marshall’s Titania – it shouldn’t have worked but it did!

 Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, took the reins for Bard in the Botanics’ first version of “Hamlet” in 2011, with Paul Cunningham taking on the title role in a heartbreakingly human and personal take on Shakespeare’s tragedy. Set in a crumbling court reminiscent of the last days of the Russian Czars, the production had exquisitely beautiful designs by Gillian Argo (set) and Carys Hobbs (costumes) which fully embodied the sense that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. Paul Cunningham’s brilliant performance in the title role was matched by a phenomenal ensemble, including Nicole Cooper’s broken Ophelia in her dead mother’s wedding dress, Tom Duncan’s powerful Laertes heartbroken by the death of his father & sister, Finlay McLean’s Doric gravedigger and Robert Elkin’s wonderfully funny cameo as camp courtier, Osric, complete with excellent furry hat!

 In the Kibble Palace – continuing our “Lesser-Spotted Shakespeare” strand of work – Gordon Barr directed the Bard in the Botanics’ debut of “Pericles”. One of Shakespeare’s late “romances”, the fairytale-esque story of Pericles crosses oceans and many countries as the title character finds, loses & is ultimately reunited with his family. It is widely thought that the play was co-written with another writer, George Wilkins, and it is fair to say that there are some pretty wild shifts of tone in the story, possibly a result of the collaboration. The detritus of a shipwreck littered the Kibble Palace and audiences entering the space encountered four 20th century archaeologists shifting through the wreckage. A book is found and one of them begins to read from it the opening narrative of the play. As if under a magic spell, the 4 characters (played by Kirk Bage, Beth Marshall, James Murfitt & Amie Burns Walker) begin to act out Shakespeare’s story, swapping effortlessly between characters and worlds. The production was not afraid to embrace some of the sillier aspects of the play – never more so than when a “tournament” to win the hand of the princess, Thaisa, played out like a school sports day complete with sack & beanbag races, with James Murfitt’s Pericles competing against Beth Marshall, playing 3 different knights from 3 different European countries – “It’s A Knockout” Shakespeare-style!

 6 different productions performed by more than 50 actors and spanning the full range of Shakespeare’s work, both in terms of genre and in encompassing his entire writing career (from some of his earliest plays in the 3 parts of Henry VI to one of his latest in Pericles), Bard in the   2011 was a suitably epic celebration of 10 years of Shakespeare in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens.

Looking back on the 2011 season, Costume Designer Carys Hobbs remembers the challenges and rewards of working on such big productions:

“Ah the 2011 season – I’m so excited to look back at this one for our Throwback Thursdays.

I remember in 2011 feeling like I’d started to find my feet as a designer but when Gordon told me quite how many costumes needed to be made for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, my brain went into overdrive. But the aesthetic became really clear very quickly which helped a lot and gave me a good prep period to work out how to get everything we wanted on a pretty tiny budget.

Jen also had a very clear idea for Hamlet, with the quote “There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark” being a key influence in the design. That allowed me to do some textile embellishment work with burning layers of stacked fabric to create the rotted pieces of clothing.

It was the first year I had placement students from the course I had studied on myself at university. I was no longer working completely alone on the season and so was born the first year of what we now call “The Kingdom of Wardrobia”.

I think we ended up making well over 45 costumes in a 6-week period which meant a lot of long days and sore fingers but the contrast between the bright riot of 1920’s circus for Dream and the dark blues, greys & blacks for Hamlet gave such a lovely group of palettes to work on and the season is looked back on as bonkers but beautiful.”

 FUN FACTS:

- 2011 saw our first acting placements join the season from the MA Classical & Contemporary Text course at RCS. Three student actors joined the company of “Hamlet”, including Associate Artist, Adam Donaldson, who made his Bard debut playing Guildenstern & Barnardo. Adam has gone on to play many major roles for the company, including Benedick (Much Ado), Enobarbus (Antony & Cleopatra), Malvolio (Twelfth Night) and the title roles in “Henry V” and “Dr Faustus”.

 - “The Wars of the Roses” was perhaps the most epic production ever undertaken by Bard in the Botanics. 21 acting students took on more than 100 roles across the trilogy, rehearsing all 3 plays simultaneously. Rehearsal schedules had to be timed to the minute with, for example, an actor working on Queen Margaret in Part 3 before dashing across the hall to suddenly switch and take on the role of Joan of Arc in Part 1 at a moment’s notice – it was a huge ask for actors in training and they rose to the challenge with exceptional aplomb!

- And if that wasn’t enough for them to deal with, the company of “The Wars of the Roses” also had to take a crash course in stage combat to manage the violence which formed an integral part of the story, from full on battles to 3-way swordfights to numerous murders (including beheadings, throat slittings and throttling) – more than 25 stage fights across the trilogy!

- The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland wasn’t the only training institution we were proud to work with in 2011. Students from the Costume Design & Construction course at Queen Margaret University – headed up by Bard’s former Head of Design, Sarah Paulley - designed and made well over 100 costumes for “The Wars of the Roses” – with one student costume designer (Nikita Cabeli de Mascarenhas) responsible for creating a coherent world across 3 plays with 3 different directors. The impeccable quality of their work is a testament to the quality of training available in Scotland!

- The core company for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” were joined by students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s BA Musical Theatre programme to create one of the company’s largest ever ensembles. We’ve been delighted to watch so many of those students go on to deservedly successful careers over the last ten years – including, amongst many others, Lawrence Robb who can currently be seen as troublemaker, Mackenzie Boyd in “Emmerdale” and Scott Gilmour who is one half of “Noisemaker”, a brilliant company creating new musicals in Scotland (most recently “Oor Wullie” for Dundee Rep).

- Stephen Clyde’s side-splittingly hilarious performance as Bottom (including invisible horse, sports car & speedboat – don’t ask!) was a highlight of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and we were delighted to see him recognised by the Critics Awards for Scotland where he won “Best Actor” for the role.

- Each of the 4 actors in Pericles had to play a dizzying array of roles but Beth Marshall perhaps holds the Bard record for the most accents employed in a single production – from the RP of Pericles’ right-hand man Helicanus to the Hebridean brogue of healer Cerimon to the harsh cockney of the brothel-owning Bawd and, of course, those 3 comedy knights from France, Italy & Germany – all perfectly rendered and individualised and a testament to her incredible skills as a performer.

2011 COMPANY:

Craig Anderson (Actor); Gillian Argo (Set Design – Hamlet); John P Arnold (Actor); Kirk Bage (Actor); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Bay Bryan (Actor); Amie Burns Walker (Actor); Stephen Clyde (Actor); Carrie-Jane Connor (Actor); Nicole Cooper (Actor); Carol Ann Crawford (Actor); Paul Cunningham (Actor); Sarah de Tute (Musical Director – Dream); Jennifer Dick (Associate Director); Adam Donaldson (Actor); Tom Duncan (Actor); Robert Elkin (Actor); Alana Gibb (Actor); Scott Gilmour (Actor); Suzie Goldberg (Deputy Stage Manager); Sophie Griffiths (Actor); Zoe Halliday (Actor); Joseph Hawkins (Actor); Carys Hobbs (Costume Designer – Dream / Hamlet); Rosie Ladkin (Actor); Kirsty MacLaren (Actor); Beth Marshall (Actor); Karen Martin (Choreographer – Dream); Finlay McLean (Actor); James Murfitt (Actor); Sarah Paulley (Set Design – Dream); David Pica (Actor); Steven Rae (Actor); Sam Ramsay (Production Manager); Lawrence Robb (Actor); Socks Rolland (Costume Props Assisant); Claire Seddon (Actor); Robert Sharpe (Actor); Marc Silberschatz (Fight Director); Andrew Fraser Thomas (Actor); Charlotte Vlaanderen (Wardrobe Assistant); Julian Wejwar (Actor)

 “The Wars of the Roses” Company:

Actors: Pola Anton, Jessica Bathurst, India Crawford, Adam Donaldson, Jessica Fay, Rachel Handshaw, Charlie Hanson, Joseph Hawkins, Rachel Sarah Henderson, David Hooley, Kevin Leask, Amy J Ludwigsen, Rose McPhilemy, Francois Menard-Noens, Kimberley Miller, Andy Paterson, David Pica, Charlotte Purser, Pamela Reid, Amandine Vincent, Jayme Wojciechowski (also Co-Fight Director)

Gordon Barr (Director – Part 3); Nikita Chabeli de Mascarenhas (Costume Designer); Jennifer Dick (Director – Part 2); Debbie Hannan (Assistant Director); Claire Moyer (Assistant Director); Sam Ramsay (Stage Manager); Marc Silberschatz (Director – Part 1), Charlotte Vlaanderen (Wardrobe Supervisor); Laura Grundy, Amber Corbett, Victoria Claire Hammond, Charlie Sobanski, Lucy Deady, Chloe Whittaker, Daisy Balderstone, Harriet Salisbury (Wardrobe Assistants)