Productions

Shakespeare at Traquair will return in 2025 with Macbeth, directed by Esmé Babineaux and will run between the 29 May – 1 June and 5 June – 8 June.

Our 2024 play was The Merchant of Venice, directed by David Bon, which ran between the 29 May – 1 June and 5 June – 8 June. In 2023, we performed Richard III between 31st May to 3rd June and 7th to 10th June, directed by Leah Moorhouse.

In our 25th year we planned to perform A Midsummers Night’s Dream, the play that started it all in 1995. However, this had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead we had to delay this to 2022 and in 2021, we put on seated outdoor performances of Hamlet and Macbeth based on the Fringe shows written by Tim Wilcock. In 2022, our promenade performances returned with A Midsummer’s Night Dream directed by Tom Hudson.

In 2015, our 20th year, Shakespeare at Traquair performed their 21st consecutive promenade production (Hamlet) in the beautiful grounds of Traquair House. In 2016 we performed The Taming of the Shrew, in 2017 The Winter’s Tale, in 2018 Much Ado About Nothing and in 2019 Love’s Labour’s Lost.

As well as these annual shows, we also put on productions at the Eastgate Theatre and elsewhere. Many of these have given starring roles to, or been cast entirely with, children or young adults. Young people also often play a crucial role in our annual promenade productions. In 2015 and 2016, our young cast performed (including sell out performances), at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (The Comedy of Errors and Macbeth and Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet) and  in 2018 they  performed The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing at the world’s largest arts festival.

In 2012, as part of the RSC Open Stages programme, Traquair House and Shakespeare at Traquair ran the 2 day Shakespeare Festival in the grounds of house. Events included theatre workshops run by the RSC and others, Elizabethan and Mediaeval music concerts and a series of Shakespeare-related productions in an indoor stage. A series of other Elizabethan and Medieval displays and events completed the entertainment.

Links to our productions can be found below, including videos, photographs and other details.

More details on the older productions are being added and if you have any photographs from these shows, please email us.

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