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The play follows a young Venetian aristocrat in pursuit of his lady love Portia who is only allowed to marry the man that successfully completes the challenge her late father set for potential suitors. The only problem is that Bassanio is broke, and his best friend Antonio is temporarily short of funds as all his investments are tied up at sea. So, they turn to the moneylender Shylock who accepts a pound of Antonio’s flesh as his bond. Not to worry; Antonio has three ships at sea and only one needs to make it back for him to pay off Shylock. What could possibly go wrong?

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Photographs and Video

Relive the production if you were in the audience, or performing in it, by browsing through the photographs and videos below. If unfortunately you were not able to attend, now is your chance to watch our take on The Merchant of Venice.

Photographs

Videos

Two videos of our production have been created as some parts such as Jessica, Nerissa and Portia, as well as several other roles, were double cast. The two versions capture both sets of actors. Enjoy!

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Rehearsals

Although it has been quite cold and wet, rehearsals continue in the beautiful grounds of Traquair House. Scenes have been blocked, lines are nearly there and characters are developing. Here are a few photographs.

Young Performers Audition & Workshop

Saturday 24^th February 1:30pm – 3:00pm

St Joseph’s Neighbourhood Centre, 17 Rosetta Rd, Peebles, EH45 8JU

After the successful adult auditions for Shakespeare at Traquair’s production of The Merchant of Venice the group are now looking for an abundance of young people who want to get involved with the production to help bring all the scenes to life. There are a wide range of parts for our young performers from market sellers to street urchins, from the Duchesses soldiers to living Chess pieces’!  

This year’s director David Bon says “The young performers have always been an important part of the group and performances; the real beauty of community theatre is that so many young people from all the surrounding towns and villages join and become involved in the show.  Their energy and enthusiasm are such a vital part of what makes Shakespeare at Traquair so special and they are key to bringing the whole show to life”.

The young performers introduction workshop for this year’s production will be a mixture of fun drama, games and some 1920s movement as we tap into this year’s theme of the Roaring ’20s.  

Whether you’ve done any outside theatre like this before, or not, or if you have ever wanted to give theatre a go then please come along.  No experience is required and there are parts for everyone who comes to the workshop or who contacts us and wants to be involved.  The rehearsals are fun, and everyone has such a good time during the rehearsal, dress rehearsal and 8 performances.

Esme Babineaux

Esme joined Shakespeare at Traquair when she was 12 years old and she says “I joined Shakespeare at Traquair in 2013 and I’m now 23 and have had the privilege of growing up performing alongside lots of incredible actors at S@T. As a kid with an interest in theatre, being surrounded by all those talented people I learned valuable performance skills just from being in a scene with them. What prompted me to join was seeing the 2012 production of Twelfth Night, my friend Caitlin Morris starred as Viola at the age of 15 and seeing someone so young cast in a leading role (and smashing it out the park) was definitely empowering. I started out with messenger roles, then at 16 I had my first principal role and since then I’ve played a wide variety of parts, all different, all interesting, and all fun! Shakespeare at Traquair is incredibly welcoming and easy to slot into, the community element of “community theatre” is very apparent. You don’t need any prior acting experience or knowledge of Shakespeare to be involved and have a good time. Those are things you’ll learn and do along the way! If you’re interested in drama school, music or dancing or want to join a professional company, having done community theatre is advantageous and even if you just want to come along for a new hobby, the benefits of theatre are massive. I was horrifically shy when I was 12, and performing gave me so much confidence and now I’m a youth theatre teacher. I’ve also met some of my closest friends thanks to being involved in community theatre, so the social element has a huge impact too. Honestly, I’d recommend joining Shakespeare at Traquair to anyone”!

The young performers workshop is open to all young people aged 10 -16 years of age, and will be held at St Joseph’s Neighbourhood Centre on Saturday 24th February starting at 1:30pm until 3pm. Can parent/s/guardians please come in and introduce themselves as we will need to gather contact information.   

Rehearsals will take place on Sundays likely from 12pm-4pm starting on the 10th March.

The Merchant of Venice evening performances will be performed in the grounds of Traquair House on Wednesday 29th May through to Saturday 1st June, then from Wednesday 5th June through to Saturday 8th June. Tickets are available from Eastgate Theatre box office.  For more information or to be added to the Shakespeare at Traquair email list contact@shakespeare-at-traquair.co.uk.

 

Casting of the play

The play has now been cast and the rehearsals and rehearsals have now begun.. More details about this and where to buy your tickets will released soon.

Main Cast Auditions: 14th January

A message from the director of The Merchant of Venice about the main cast auditions (14+) which will be held on the 14th January:

I’m delighted (well that’s what Richard & Fiona tell me) to have another opportunity to direct the S@T production this year. After the fantastic rehearsal process and show last year, following Leah feels like quite a daunting task. But I’ll do my best and I’ve got a great team around me as always putting the production together.

Our show for 2024 will be The Merchant of Venice. When I was asked – half way through the run of Richard III – to consider directing Merchant, I’m not sure if it was exhaustion or adrenaline that made me say yes. However, the more I’ve delved into the play the more I have become convinced that there is a great story in there for us to tell – and perhaps in some ways that haven’t been emphasised before.

As many of you will be aware this is a challenging play. We only need to look at what is happening in the world around us right now to realise that the themes and issues it raises remain as relevant as ever. We’ll tackle that head on in our production. Whilst structurally a comedy – all the lovers get married at the end of the play – for me there is a real sense that most of them are pretty unhappy with their lot. This is not a play where at the end we feel these are our heroes who have got their happy ending. Prior to the auditions I’ll send out another email which will give more detail on the characters, my concept and how we’ll be approaching the storytelling.

Speaking of auditions, this year they will take place in St Joseph’s Neighbourhood Centre on Sunday 14th January at 2pm. These auditions are for the main cast (aged 14+). Auditions for younger people (up to 14) will take place towards the end of February and a further communication will be sent to confirm date, time and location in due course.

Similar to how I have run these in the past, there will be a bit more detail on how we are going to tell the story, followed by some movement work (nothing to strenuous I promise) and then we’ll workshop one of the key scenes from the play – The Trial scene. Use the link below to view the full scene and take a look at in advance, but on the day this will be broken up into smaller sections.

• The Trial scene – Act 4 Scene 1

I thought the longer, once a week rehearsals worked really well last year and we’ll continue with that. So rehearsals will take place on Sunday afternoons roughly from 1pm-6pm starting on the 4th of February. Initially these will be indoors (venue to be confirmed) and we’ll start outside at Traquair after the clocks go forward. As anyone who has worked with me when I’ve directed S@T before knows, I always take a 2 week break at Easter (so 31st March and 7th April this year). Scary for some I know but an excellent opportunity to get off the book!

The show itself will take place at 7:30pm on:

• Wednesday to Saturday 29th May – 1st June
• Wednesday to Saturday 5th – 8th June

So get those dates in the diary and I hope to see as many of you as can make it at the auditions in January.

David Bon

Director