Theatricum Botanicum Lights 450 Birthday Candles and Announces an All-Shakespeare Season for 2014

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum celebrates the Bard's 450th Birthday with an All-Shakespeare Season under the stars and live oaks of Topanga Canyon.

A lively mix of tragedy and comedy with a heaping tablespoon of Theatricum's trademark social commentary, the 2014 five-play repertory season has something for everyone, including unique Theatricum twists on King Lear and All's Well That Ends Well; Shakespeare's much-beloved Much Ado About Nothing; the company's annual, signature production of A Midsummer Night's Dream; and Equivocation, the award-winning play by Bill Cain that goes behind the scenes at the legendary Globe Theatre as King James commissions a young William "Shagspeare" to write a play about a thwarted attempt on his life. In addition, Theatricum has been selected to participate in "Shakespeare on the Road," a 60-day road trip by a team representing the University of Warwick and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust that will visit and document Shakespeare-related theater festivals across America during the 450th birthday of Shakespeare in 2014 and the 400th anniversary of his death in 2016.

2014 Repertory Season

Lear

June 7–Sept. 28

Pride and vanity go-eth before a fall as an aging monarch's decent into madness lifts a veil of false natures and betrayal that can only be confronted by the steadfastness of genuine love and loyalty.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

June 8–Sept. 27

A magical forest inhabited by mischievous faeries enchants young lovers, inspires comic misadventures, and celebrates the enduring power of nature.

All's Well That End's Well

June 21–Sept. 27

A young woman's commitment to her heart sets her against the propriety of social convention. Rejected by a nobleman because of her station, she stretches the limits to which she is prepared to go to win him, challenging the status quo with a strong will and keen intellect.

Much Ado About Nothing

July 12–Sept. 28

When truth and trust are tested... friends are set at dangerous odds, young hearts are challenged by disillusionment, and honor gives sway to jealousy. But in the midst, the wit and wisdom of longtime adversaries reveals the face of true love.

Equivocation

Sept. 5-Oct. 4

by Bill Cain

In 1605 a down-on-his-luck London playwright named "Shagspere" must walk a political tightrope between his royal patron and his artistic integrity when he is commissioned to pen a play about the 'gunpowder plot' of revolutionary, Guy Faulkes.