2010 Season

KING LEAR

Directed by Gordon Barr

“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child”

When King Lear decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, he sets in motion a terrifying chain of events which will bring him to the very edge of sanity and his whole kingdom to the brink of ruin.

Widely regarded as Shakespeare’s greatest tragic achievement, King Lear makes its Botanic Gardens’ debut in an electrifying and heartrending new production.

QUEEN MARGARET

(adapted from Henry VI Parts 1, 2 & 3 and Richard III)

Directed and adapted by Jennifer Dick

‘Women are soft, mild, pitiful and flexible;
But you are more inhuman, more inexorable,
O, ten times more, than tigers…’

At the tender age of fifteen a French noblewoman becomes Queen of England. Beset on all sides by greed, hatred and treachery, Margaret doesn’t cower or hide. A bewitching and dangerous woman, she becomes a commanding monarch and a terrifying warrior. A woman who wields a sword as viciously as she wields her words, Margaret will not be crossed, crushed or beaten…

Taking her story from Shakespeare’s King Henry the Sixth and Richard the Third, Queen Margaret tells the thrilling and violent tale of a real life queen who was afraid of nothing and no-one.

TWELFTH NIGHT

Directed by Gordon Barr

“O time! thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me to untie”

When Viola is shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria, fearing her twin brother drowned, she disguises herself as a boy to serve the Count Orsino. In doing so, she brings life and love back to a community stifled by its own desires but where love comes, confusion and mayhem are never far behind.

Twelfth Night is Shakespeare at the peak of his comedic powers, weaving together joy and melancholy, heartache and laughter – and a pair of yellow stockings!

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Directed by Marc Silberschatz

“Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.”

Titus Andronicus, Rome’s servant and soldier for forty years, returns home to bury his sons and retire in peace.  But his complicity in an act of ritual sacrifice begins a horrifying series of events where justice is only a memory, forcing him to avenging the atrocities visited upon his family.

Displaying Shakespeare’s masterful blending of black humour and wrenching tragedy, this new production takes a trip to the Botanic Gardens’ savage side.