Glasgow's Bard in the Botanics marks silver jubilee with 'lovers and madmen'

There is one corner of Scotland’s theatre scene, though, where the work of the Bard has been performed, re-examined, experimented with and celebrated without fail, every year for the past two decades and more; and that place is Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens, home to the annual Bard in the Botanics season.

In a sense, Bard in the Botanics is the Scottish theatre initiative that got away, and that by all normal rules should never have survived for long. Founded in 2002 by an entrepreneurial American director, Scott Palmer, who returned home in 2004, the Bard season has always been vulnerable to the vagaries of Glasgow’s summer weather, which have only intensified in recent years; and the company has always lived on a financial knife-edge, depending almost entirely on box office income, and receiving no grant support from Creative Scotland or Glasgow City Council - although the Council provides massive support in kind by providing the venue free of charge.

Yet somehow, the Bard season has survived, thriving both creatively, and in terms of audience numbers; and this year, it celebrates its 25th year of production with its usual summer season of four shows - two on the outdoor stage, and two in the dramatic interior of the legendary Kibble Palace - plus one Christmas pantomime, created for and with their loyal partners, the Byre Theatre, St Andrews.

“At first, we focussed entirely on Shakespeare,” explains Gordon Barr, who directed a show in the very first Bard season in 2002, and has been artistic director of the company since 2004. “We felt this obligation to produce Shakespeare’s plays, and to produce all of them; and it was a terrific experience, staging rarely-seen plays like Pericles in all sorts of corners of the gardens. In those early days, we used to do promenade shows all over the gardens; and that sometimes led to incredibly vivid moments.”

As the Bard’s audiences grew bigger, though, and the company matured, they began to search out fixed performance spaces in the gardens, where the audience could settle down on their folding chairs and garden furniture, and enjoy a picnic before the show, or during the interval.

And they also, over the past decade, have begun to explore material beyond the Shakespeare canon, and to present plays by Shakespeare contemporaries Marlowe and Webster, and by classic writers ranging from Henrik Ibsen to Charlotte Bronte and Arthur Conan Doyle; so that this year’s 25th anniversary season opens with two Shakespeare plays - Twelfth Night outdoors, and Othello in the Kibble Palace - and then continues with a new version of Jane Austen’s Emma (to mark the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth), and a new take on Webster’s fierce tragedy The Duchess of Malfi.

“I find it reinvigorating,” says Barr, “the alternation between Shakespeare and these other writers. There’s no doubt that the sheer quality of Shakespeare’s dramatic writing shines through, and is very hard to equal. But I feel that working on other writers only sharpens my appreciation of that; and of course, a writer like Jane Austen is herself a brilliant creator of character and dialogue, and such a joy to work with.”

Barr now works very much in partnership with Bard associate director Jennifer Dick, who like him has been involved with the season since its earliest days. This year, she will adapt and direct The Duchess of Malfi, and is directing the company’s opening production of Twelfth Night; while Barr directs her adaptation of Emma, and himself adapts and directs Othello.

“One of the most exciting things about Bard in the Botanics is the way our acting company evolves over the years,” says Barr, who has played a key role in nurturing the careers of leading Scottish-based talents including multiple award winner Nicole Cooper, and rising star Sam Stopford.

“I was really inspired to direct Othello this year, for example, because there’s something so timely about this story of a disappointed, middle-aged white man who feels that his life is going nowhere, and who simply cannot bear to see the happiness of his black commander and his beautiful young white wife. That kind of racial politics has not changed; and I’m absolutely thrilled that in Manasa Tagica, we’ve found a young black actor, trained and based in Scotland, who has this huge maturity in taking on the title role, and is a great addition to our company.

“It is wonderful,” he adds, “to have this experience of taking performers who may be very frightened of Shakespeare at first, and to watch and encourage them as they gradually build up the technique, the confidence, and the sense of friendship and trust in the company that makes them into fine Shakespearean performers.

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“As for the future - well, I think both Jen and I feel that there’s just so much variety and richness in this job, that we could never get bored with it. We have reached a stage, now, where people often say to us that it’s ridiculous that we have no Creative Scotland funding.

“But as a company that doesn’t work all year round, we just don’t have the time or the staff to deal with the bureaucracy and the administrative burden involved in that kind of funding. It’s true that the Bard’s finances are always at the mercy of the weather; but there is something quite Shakespearean about that, after all. And certainly for now, we would rather take our chances with the elements, and with our wonderful audiences; and stay free - free to follow our own instincts, and to do the work we really love to do.”

The 2026 Bard in the Botanics season is at the Botanic Gardens, Glasgow, until 1 August. For details see https://www.bardinthebotanics.co.uk/productions

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