Early Bird Ticket Offer for Bard 2014!

Early Bird Ticket Offer

2014 sees Bard in the Botanics stage its most ambitious and exciting season ever to be held in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens, featuring brand new productions of:

• The Comedy of Errors

• Henry IV

• Henry V

• Hamlet

We want to make sure that as many people as possible can enjoy this summer’s performances so we’ve introduced an Early Bird Ticket Offer, with 170 tickets for The Comedy of Errors and Henry V on sale for just £5.

Our £5 tickets are currently available for the following dates:

The Comedy of Errors - Fri 27^th - Sat 28^th June

Thurs 3^rd July

Sat 5^th July

Wed 9^th – Sat 12^th July

Henry V - Fri 18^th - Sat 19^th July

Thurs 24^th - Sat 26^th July

Wed 30^th July – Sat 2^nd August

But hurry if you want to take advantage of this offer, there are only 10 tickets available at this price for each of the above dates!

You can book online through our website at www.bardinthebotanics.co.uk or ring the Citizens Theatre box office on 0141 429 0022.

And remember, this is a first-come, first-served offer – the early bird catch the £5 tickets – so don’t delay!

N.B. Our usual refund policy applies to these discounted tickets. If the performance you are booked for is cancelled, your tickets will be eligible for a refund or will be valid for any other performance of the same title.

Meet the Company - Associate Artist, Kirk Bage

What We Have Been / What We May Be Interview with Associate Artist, Kirk Bage, Kirk is one of the company's core ensemble of actors and has worked with Bard in the Botanics since our first year. Most recently he played Iago in Othello and Mark Antony in Julius Caesar.

1. When, where and what was your first encounter with Bard in the Botanics?

I auditioned for Gordon Barr for an Autumn production of The Duchess of Malfi, set in the graveyard of the Ramshorn Church, Glasgow in 2002. I believe it may have been part of the West End Festival, but I can’t be 100% on that 12 years on! (Editors Note: It was part of The Merchant City Festival in September - lovely cold weather for an outdoor performance!)  The company was then exclusively known as Glasgow Repertory Company and I remember being very impressed by everyone involved, how passionate they were about the work, and how quickly they could produce a work of such merit.  I was desperate to be part of the main Summer season and was thrilled be asked to take part the following year, with roles in Measure For Measure and Antony & Cleopatra, as well as a now semi-legendary French Soldier in Scott Palmer’s Henry V.

2. Who would you describe as an unsung hero of Bard in the Botanics?

Without a doubt, much praise is due to every member of the stage management over the years, achieving miracles, keeping us safe, dealing with tantrums, working the longest hours and generally being the most fun in the pub afterwards – but that’s going to be a popular answer.  Above all I think the unsung heroes of Bard in the Botanics are the paying public who have stayed faithful and returned year after year, despite many wet spells, to support the shows with great enthusiasm and knowledge. It’s always nice to meet a patron who can rattle a list of their favourite Bard in the Botanics productions.

3. Which individual performance by an actor has made a particularly lasting impression on you (it might be one that you saw, worked with or was in a production you were involved with)?

So many to choose from, but I have to go with the award winning performance of Stephen Clyde in A Midsummer Night’s Dream a few years ago. I went back to see the show 3 times and was blown away by the ideas and timing involved in that performance, which I think is the funniest thing I have ever seen on a stage that wasn’t a stand-up comedian! I would have felt self conscious laughing so hard if it hadn’t been for everyone else in the audience doing the same. A true poke in the eye for anyone who thinks Shakespeare has to be dry and serious. Borderline genius.

4. Of your own work, what is the most fulfilling production you’ve been a part of?

They have all been rewarding, and educational, in their own way, every one of them.  Scott Palmer’s Richard III in 2004 will always remain special to me as it was probably the first time I truly understood every word and moment in a Shakespeare play. The amazing ensemble were brave in tackling the humour head on and I felt incredibly supported and privileged  to be playing the iconic lead at such a young age. It paved the way to all future work I’ve done with the company and prepared me for all the future challenges I would face. Gordon Barr’s As You Like It from 2012 also sticks out for different reasons, as I could have played the character of Jacques all day every day (I still use the incredible All The World’s a Stage speech in a lot of auditions) and I think we painted some beautiful pictures in that play. As an all round experience though, I would have to say last season’s production of Julius Caesar, adapted and directed by Jennifer Dick; a small, super smart, super talented, hard working cast, many many challenges to bring the script to life, the challenge of the extremely hot and humid, but beautiful Kibble Palace and an audience feedback that surpasses anything else I’ve ever felt as an actor. Very special.

5. Which Bard in the Botanics production or performance did you miss that you wish you’d seen?

Everything from 2007 to 2009 really. Macbeth with Paul Cunningham, Taming of the Shrew with Jennifer Dick, etc, etc. There’ll always be part of me that regrets missing that phase of the company’s history. I also regret I could only watch Hamlet in 2011 once – I was performing simultaneously in Pericles in the Kibble Palace, but could have watched Paul Cunningham and Nicole Cooper in that production many many times.

6. Which costume (of yours or someone else’s) would you most like to have worn or is simply your favourite?

I’ve had some good ones, and also some shockers! I never particularly think I wear costumes well, so it’s not something I dwell on, but Jacques’ togs were very comfortable and like a second skin, so I’d say that of my own. But really it has to be any of the gorgeous dresses worn by the ladies in any number of shows, the sisters in King Lear and Nicole Cooper as Ophelia in Hamlet, and again in last year’s Othello, together with Jennifer Dick’s two costumes in the same play, stick most in my mind.

7. What is your favourite spot in the Botanics Gardens, known or unknown?

Outside the White House. Waiting outside there in all weathers, cloud watching, in all moods, before shows, after shows, nervous, elated, deflated, worried, proud, expectant – that spot is Bard in the Botanics for me! The plants and stuff are ok too.

8. Bard in the Botanics has staged 24 of Shakespeare’s plays. Which of the titles we haven’t yet produced are you most excited about being staged?

Richard II.  A sublime play.  I can’t wait...

Meet the Glasgow theatre company - Artistic Director, Gordon Barr

What We Have Been / What We May Be Interview with Artistic Director, Gordon Barr

This is the first of a series of interviews with key Bard in the Botanics staff about their experiences of the Glasgow festival over the past 12 years - hope you enjoy revisiting some of our memories from years gone by and finding out a bit more about us all.

 1. When, where and what was your first encounter with Bard in the Botanics? 

Gordon: I was chaperoning for Scottish Opera with one of the founding members of Bard in the Botanics who told me that Scott Palmer was creating this festival so my first proper encounter with the company was helping to pour drinks at a fundraiser in the Kibble Palace at Glasgow's Botanic Gardens before the first season, which began a conversation with Scott about directing for the Glasgow theatre company and led to me being Bard’s very first Emerging Artist in 2002.

2. Who would you describe as an unsung hero of Bard in the Botanics? 

Gordon: Definitely the Stage Management team and for a very specific reason – the fact that they are the other people involved in the decision to cancel a show in the event of rain, alongside me. And me on a cancellation night is not the easiest person to be around – it’s never a decision we want to make and it’s never an easy decision to make and the Stage Management are incredibly supportive of helping to make that decision with me or, occasionally, even over-ruling me when there are safety concerns. Not an easy task and one they do brilliantly.

3. Which individual performance by an actor has made a particularly lasting impression on you (it might be one that you saw, worked with or was in a production you were involved with)?

Gordon: Oh gosh, I could say any one of about a hundred but I’m deliberately going to choose a performance from a show I didn’t direct, one which made a huge impact on me just seeing it, rather than helping to shape it and it’s Nicole Cooper as Ophelia in 2011’s Hamlet. Nicole is an incredible actor and I could have picked any of her performances – Rosalind or Viola or Helena – but it was the way that she managed to take a role that can be a bit “wet” and turn it into someone who was an equal to Hamlet and who went on her own, very sad journey, paralleling his story rather than being subservient to it. Plus, she made me cry every time I saw her play it – which is not an easy thing to do.

4. Of your own work, what is the most fulfilling production you’ve been a part of? 

Gordon: Aggghh! This is so difficult but I think I’m going to back in time a little bit for this one. I nearly answered my most recent production, Much Ado About Nothing, which was so personal to me and so joyous to create and connected so strongly to the audience, despite a central twist that could have put people off. But I’m going back to what I consider the first production of my “second phase” at Bard in the Botanics because for the first few years of running the company and directing shows, I was in a constant state of panic and I think the first time I really felt like I’d taken a show by the throat and taken it to somewhere unexpected was The Merchant of Venice in 2008. I had a brilliant cast who just wanted to dig deeper and deeper into that very complicated and thorny play and who wanted to make the characters real, even if that meant they were unlikeable and to follow me on a journey that took the play quite far away from comedy and into darker, very fulfilling territory. In fact it’s become a template for how I direct shows ever since.

5.Which Bard in the Botanics production or performance did you miss that you wish you’d seen?

Gordon: There are only 2 productions in the history of Bard in the Botanics which I never got to see, both because randomly in our early years I kept ending up on stage, despite not being an actor. One was Measure for Measure in 2003 and the other was Macbeth in 2004. Of those two, the one I definitely wish I’d seen was Macbeth because of the central pairing of David Ireland as Macbeth and Jennifer Dick as Lady Macbeth. It annoys me that I never got to see Jennifer’s Lady Macbeth because she is an incredibly powerful actor (as well as a brilliant director) and I’m sure it was an amazing performance. Also, David Ireland has always been a favourite actor of mine, even though he is now principally a playwright (and a fantastic one too) so I wish I had seen those two playing those particular roles.

 6. Which costume (of yours or someone else’s) would you most like to have worn or is simply your favourite? 

Gordon: This is another nightmare question for me because I love costume. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m obsessed with costumes, especially trying them on if I’m ever left alone in the wardrobe room – which I’m not allowed to do anymore. And our current costume designer, Carys Hobbs, has come up with so many amazing costumes in her time with Bard in the Botanics but I’m going to go for a real blast from the past here with what might have been the first costume ever made for Bard in the Botanics – Lavinia’s costume in Kabuki-Titus (a Kabuki theatre version of Titus Andronicus). It was a beautiful white kimono with incredible feather details and these red gloves that had hundreds of red ribbons sewn on to them so that when Lavinia loses her hands, the actor, Johanne Scoular, could throw her arms wide and these ribbons would pour out. It was stunning visual image, especially at 11.30 p.m. at night in the Kibble Palace where that show first played.

 7. What is your favourite spot in the Botanics Gardens, known or unknown? 

Gordon: I’m going to cheat a little bit on the answer to this. I will include a spot in the gardens as my answer but what makes this spot special is the particular time when I’m there. It’s the main path of the Botanic Gardens but especially being on that path at the end of the season, after the very last performance, when all the actors have headed over to Oran Mor for a celebratory pint and even the stage management have finished and left. So I’ll often be the last person to leave the Botanic Gardens and I love to stand on the path, in the pitch black since it’s usually about midnight, and have a quiet moment to reflect on the season and what we’ve achieved – and often the resident fox will pop out to say goodbye. It’s always a special moment.

8. Bard in the Botanics has staged 24 of Shakespeare’s plays. Which of the titles we haven’t yet produced are you most excited about being staged? 

Gordon: I’m slightly wary about answering this question because, as Artistic Director, it slightly implies that my choice will happen soon which it may not – there are lots of factors involved in choosing when a play gets staged at Bard in the Botanics. But that said there is one title I’ve been saying I’ll do for about the past 10 years which is Love’s Labours Lost. I think the final scene of that play is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing he ever created – the shock of what happens in that scene always chokes me up. And it’s a perfect outdoor show – it’s set outdoors – the Botanic Gardens are an ideal setting for it. I just need to work out how to afford the ensemble cast of 18 it requires!

"What We May Be" in Summer: our Glasgow festival 2014

How do we choose which plays to do and when to do them? Well, we don’t have a big Shakespeare Wall-chart in the office on which we slowly check the plays off with a satisfying Sharpie tick, although come to think of it that might be fun. Of course, one of our goals is eventually to have performed all of Shakespeare’s plays, but programming is not an exact science and every decision is influenced by many factors, some of them artistic, some of them pragmatic. Take this year for instance. We talked about what we wanted to do, what hadn’t we done in a while, what had we never done, what does the audience want, how can we balance giving the audience what they want with giving them something new and challenging, what plays work together as a season and so on. Casting is a massive part of programming too. So is location. We are, after all, mainly an outdoor theatre company.

And which comes first, the programme or the theme? That is definitely a chicken and egg question, but mostly we find that, having chosen a programme of plays that feels right, the theme emerges organically. The plays feel right together for us because they do share common threads.

Try as we might we couldn’t force a theme that connected directly with the Commonwealth Games, an event that will draw large numbers of visitors to our city during the period we perform. Believe it or not one of us was actually heard to speak the phrase “Shakespeare just isn’t very commonwealthy!” But when we thought about the other major event preoccupying our nation this year, our season’s theme seemed obvious.

Our plays this summer all investigate identity, nationality & leadership at a time when these issues will be at the forefront of Scottish life. Which, when you think about it, is a theme that isn’t just about the Independence Referendum, but is about the Commonwealth Games too. It’s about who we are and what we are, as people, as communities, as countries.

How does a person, a community, a nation define their identity? What are the costs and compromises a person or a nation has to make to define or defend that identity? What should government and leadership look like? What should we demand of our leaders and of ourselves?

So there you have it. That’s what we are doing this year. Did you notice how I didn’t tell you what any of the plays are?

“Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.” (Hamlet, Act 4; Scene 5)