You may not have noticed, but this is a big year for William Shakespeare.
“It seems slightly off to be taking the opportunity to commemorate his death, 400 years ago,” admits Gordon Barr, “but I guess any significant anniversary puts the spotlight back on to him.”
That’s potentially good news for Gordon. He’s Artistic Director of Bard in the Botanics, the only professional theatre company in Scotland which presents – from late June into July every summer – new productions of Shakespeare’s work within the grounds of Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens.
Bard in the Botanics was the brainchild of an American, Scott Palmer. “With the kind of drive and enthusiasm that only Americans have, he managed to convince the entire city of Glasgow that outdoor Shakespeare would work, and that the weather wasn’t going to be a problem,” Gordon explains. Just two years later, however, Scott Palmer moved on and Gordon – originally involved as a director – succeeded him. His office is now hidden behind some of the Botanics’ gardening sheds.
While the annual summer season of Shakespeare plays in the Botanics will remain at the core of what the company does – “Otherwise, Bard in the Botanics becomes a rather strange name,” he admits – Gordon is very much focused on building the company’s touring capability.
In early 2014 Bard in the Botanics managed to secure public funding for the first time to support a tour of their five-star production of Romeo and Juliet. “We finally got the chance to take the work to the communities we wanted to take it to,” he says. “We were taking it to places like Mull and Stranraer – communities and venues that haven’t had a lot of classical theatre coming through them.
“It was very successful for us, and we want to do more of that. Our work is so much about accessibility; one of the joys of being outdoors is that people come to see the work who wouldn’t buy a ticket for a theatre. If you can bring a picnic, sit out on the grass while watching the show, it feels easier, more accessible.”
This year the company is looking to link up with other Botanic Gardens and theatres around Scotland, in an attempt to establish an outdoor touring circuit. “Hopefully we’ll be going to Dundee and the Gardens there, under the auspices of Dundee Rep,” he says. “The same with St Andrews, building on our relationship with the Byre Theatre.
Even ignoring the Shakespeare anniversary, however, 2016 is a pretty big year for Bard in the Botanics. “We’re 15 this year. You have to take that as an opportunity to sit down and go: OK, we can celebrate making it to here, but where do we go next? Do we carry on doing the same things? Do we expand? Do we try new things? Hopefully, we’ll be doing a little bit of all of that this year.”
Admittedly, some might be initially puzzled by one of the four plays making up this year’s “Vaulting Ambition” season: along with new productions of Twelfth Night, Coriolanus and Macbeth, Bard in the Botanics is presenting a new production of Doctor Faustus – by Christopher Marlowe.
“Rather weirdly, in a year where everyone is celebrating Shakespeare, we’re taking the opportunity to start exploring his contemporaries – what might have influenced him, and what was influenced by him – and so set Shakespeare in a wider context,” says Gordon.
It’s not the first time that Bard in the Botanics has stepped away from the man himself, but there always remained a connection. “This Beautiful Country was a prologue to The Tempest, using text from the play itself. David Leddy’s Sussurus, in 2006, was inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Now, Marlowe was a massive influence on Shakespeare. Macbeth and Doctor Faustus will be playing in the same half of the season, and there’s something in those two visions of hell, and of bargains being made, that makes them quite nice companion pieces.”
“The whole programme is hopefully our usual mix of titles that are instantly recognisable – though hopefully with a fresh angle brought to them – and those which are new to us. We’ve never done Coriolanus before, and I suspect it hasn’t been performed professionally in Scotland since the 1970s.”
Coriolanus will form part of what Gordon dubs their “Lesser Spotted Shakespeare”, which have smaller casts and simpler staging within the Botanic Gardens’ famous Kibble Palace glasshouse. Doctor Faustus will follow a similar pattern, in contrast to the large outdoor production of Macbeth which Gordon himself will direct. “We did have a discussion about whether or not Macbeth would appeal to our audiences. They come so regularly and so often, we wondered if they’re actually slightly more interested in the less-well known plays. Ultimately, though, we decided there’s always an audience for Macbeth!”
Many touring Outdoor Shakespeare companies make a virtue of having no more than a cast of five. “That was never our interest,” Gordon insists. “We want to create as full productions as we can but, being unfunded, that has always been a challenge.
“It’s a testament to the work and the company ethos that we have such fantastic actors who come back here year after year. We also have an emerging artists scheme which enables us to work with young graduating actors, coming to the end of their training, and in the last few years we’ve worked with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
“We’ve never gone out of our way to make Scottish versions of these texts, or Scottish productions, but most of our core actors have made their careers up here, so we think of them as Scottish actors,” Gordon insists. “That is important to us, to not overly look outwards for the acting company, to – as much as possible – work with people based in Scotland — hence the fact that we developed the emerging artists scheme.
“We’re regularly producing Shakespeare in Scotland. We want to be a part of the training here and ensuring that there is a range of strong classically-trained actors. Everybody does Shakespeare in their training, but it could be a long time before they get back to it, so here’s a conduit to do it professionally. Here’s an opportunity.”
Some 13 years on, does Gordon still enjoy his job? “Ask me on a rainy Wednesday in the middle of July, and the answer might be different, but on the whole, it’s great,” he says. “I joined the company more or less straight after I graduated from university. I was at the very start of my career, and very kindly offered an opportunity as a young director but if anyone had said then that I would end up spending 13 years running an outdoor Shakespeare festival, I wouldn’t have believed them.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I very quickly fell in love with it once I started working here. With all its trials and tribulations that outdoor theatre in Scotland brings with it, there’s just something magical and special about it, and the company itself has become a family, it’s a very close-knit company. And that’s sort of kept us all here as long as we have been.”
First published in The Scots Magazine, June 2016.
