For all the popularity of Bard In The Botanics, Glasgow's al fresco Shakespeare festival, the company behind it could not be accused of pandering to popular taste. True, it is not above staging crowd-pleasers; in its 21-year history it has returned five times to A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night and four times to Much Ado About Nothing. "Why would you programme something no one wants to come and see?" says associate director Jennifer Dick with good reason.

But what is also true is that the company is willing to venture off the beaten track and spring surprises. This summer's season kicks off with a main stage Julius Caesar and, in the Kibble Palace, a condensing of both parts of Henry IV for a cast of four.

"We have the space to look at the full range of Shakespeare's work," says artistic director Gordon Barr. "That is partly because of the length of time we've been going, building up the receptivity of the audience to know they're going to enjoy what we're doing. That allows them to take more risks with us."

Publicity images for Julius Caesar and Henry IV at the 2023 Bard in the Botanics festival PICS: Courtesy of Bard in the Botanics

"It's been a while now since we've had anybody sitting in the audience with their copy of the script, following along and looking confused," says Dick. "Most people come open to the story we're going to tell using Shakespeare's amazing words, and there's an excitement about how we're going to tell the story. Even if we are doing something like A Midsummer Night's Dream or Romeo And Juliet – those floor-fillers – we approach them in a way that is bold and brave."

Barr says there is a more fundamental question: "When we're programming, the first question we ask each other is, 'Why this play, why now?' We have to know that whoever is directing has something they want to say with the play. That's what stops it being chocolate-box Shakespeare, where the main thing is about it looking pretty."

What, then, is Dick's reason for wanting to direct Julius Caesar in 2023? "Why not Julius Caesar?" she laughs. "We had planned to do it in 2020 before the pandemic and I thought then there was no riper moment. Little did I know what was in our future. A jumping off point was what happened in America on 6 January [2021] following the election, which speaks to a play that talks about the mob."

Her staging of Shakespeare's political tragedy has Stephanie McGregor in the role of Mark Antony, Adam Donaldson as Brutus and James Boal in the title role. Dick says the play operates on two levels. On the one hand, it is about oratory and the capacity to sway public opinion with fine words. On the other, it is about the kind of political machinations and lust for power that have never gone out of date.

"It is a play about great oratory, but it is also about what happens if you bring physical violence into the realm of the political," says Dick, who will be making the most of the direct actor-audience relationship in the outdoor playing area. "It asks a lot of questions of what you do in the face of tyranny. It feels like a very immediate play – here, in America, all around the world."

Barr's reason for wanting to stage the two Henry IV plays was initially because of the actors. Last year, as the cast enjoyed a drink in Oran Mor, over the road from the Botanic Gardens, he could not help but notice the chemistry between Alan Steele and Sam Stopford. The actors were in different productions, but off stage, they looked just like Falstaff, the avuncular bon vivant, and Hal, the good-time prince readying himself to take on the sobriety of kinghood.

"I thought, 'If I can get these two on board, this is the right time to do it,'" says Barr. "What's interesting about doing it now is to see these questions about monarchy being part of the nation's conversation again."

When it comes to surprises, there can be nothing less expected than the second half of the season, when the company drops Shakespeare in favour of Oscar Wilde and Robert Louis Stevenson. Last year, it seemed like a radical departure when they introduced Medea by Euripides into the mix. How much more so this year when The Importance Of Being Earnest and Jekyll & Hyde make up the bill?

"We’d done a lot of the Shakespearean comedies in quick succession, partly after the pandemic to give the audience a good time," says Barr. "That left us going, 'What's the next comedy that we do?' That opened up the conversation to Oscar Wilde. It's great to see the audience going with that."

You would struggle to make a connection between Jekyll & Hyde and Shakespeare, but for Dick, her adaptation of the RLS novella is deeply informed by her experience as a director for Bard In The Botanics. "Everything I know about character I've learned from working with Shakespeare," she says, delighted to be staging the creepy Victorian tale to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Kibble Palace. "There are no richer, more exciting characters than the ones Shakespeare gives you. Even the smallest part in Shakespeare will have something interesting in the language that gives you a little hook of who the character might be. I've also learned how to structure an exciting story and to make it clear to the audience."

Bard in the Botanics is at the Botanic Gardens, Glasgow, from 21 June until 29 July, see www.bardinthebotanics.co.uk

Bard in the Botanics: 'We approach Shakespeare's plays in a way that is bold and brave'