Bard in the Botanics Announce 2025 Season

Bard in the Botanics has today announced details of its 2025 season, which features two of Shakespeare's most popular plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet alongside works by Marlowe: Dr Faustus and Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia.

The Magic, Mayhem and Murder season opens on 27 June 2025 (previews on 25 and 26 June) with a new mainstage production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 15 years after he last directed the play, Gordon Barr will present a version featuring Bard company stalwart, Alan Steele, as Bottom with Bard regulars, James Boal and Claire Macallister, as Oberon and Titania. Barr promises a production that draws on Celtic and British Folklore to create a magical version of the evergreen comedy. Meanwhile, in the Kibble Palace glasshouse Jennifer Dick will direct a new production of her 3-hander adaptation of Marlowe's Dr Faustus with Adam Donaldson as Faustus and Sam Stopford as Mephistopheles.

The second half of the season, which starts on 18 July (with previews on 17 July) features a new production of Barr's 5-hander Romeo & Juliet, which was last staged in 2012. Sam Stopford takes on the role of Romeo with Lola Aluko as Juliet. Over in the Kibble Palace a new piece by Jennifer Dick is set to have its premiere. Following her adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde, which broke box-office records for the company in 2023, Dick has now woven together three of Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories into a brand-new play: Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia. Adam Donaldson takes on the role of Sherlock Holmes with Stephen Arden as Dr Watson.

Announcing the programme Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, recalled his early work with Bard in the Botanics.

"In my first two years with Bard in the Botanics almost 25 years ago I was delighted to be able to direct two of my favourite Shakespeare plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. Those shows sparked a life-long love of Shakespeare - his plays have such an incredible depth that no matter how often you return to them there is always more to discover and it is a great pleasure to revisit these two plays for the 2025 season with more than two decades of experience under my belt!"

"Whilst Shakespeare remains at the heart of Bard in the Botanics, as we continue to explore more of the canon of classic drama and literature, it's exciting to bring the work of another Scottish author to our stages – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His Sherlock Holmes stories have delighted generations of readers and I can't wait for our Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, to bring three of those stories to life in the Kibble Palace in a brand new play featuring the world's foremost consulting detective.

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