The Taming of the Shrew – Traquair House

All the world’s a stage, wrote Shakespeare, and nowhere does that feel truer than at Traquair. On a glorious Borders evening, with peacocks calling in the distance, goats grazing unconcernedly nearby, live musicians leading the audience from scene to scene, and performers appearing from every corner of Scotland’s oldest inhabited house, Shakespeare’s comedy becomes something far more than a play. It becomes an event.

Director Kath Mansfield’s production of The Taming of the Shrew is playful, joyful and bursting with life. Every corner of the estate is pressed into service, from formal gardens and winding pathways to the magnificent terraces in front of the house. Traquair itself becomes a cast member, its ancient walls, mature trees and carefully cultivated landscape providing a backdrop that no theatre designer could hope to replicate.

What is particularly fascinating is watching Mansfield grapple not only with Shakespeare’s text but with Traquair itself. The house and gardens provide an extraordinary theatrical canvas, but they also present practical challenges that a conventional theatre never faces. Some of the evening’s strongest scenes take place on the magnificent tiered lawns in front of the house, where performers occupy different levels within the landscape and the entire audience can clearly follow the action. Here, the architecture and topography become part of the storytelling, creating a naturally occurring amphitheatre.

Elsewhere, where actors and audience occupy the same level ground, sightlines inevitably become more difficult and some of the visual detail is occasionally lost within the crowd. Yet even this becomes part of the fascination of the evening. Promenade theatre is never entirely controllable, and one senses Mansfield constantly negotiating between the demands of the text, the movement of a large audience and the realities of the landscape. The achievement lies not in pretending these challenges do not exist, but in embracing them as part of the live theatrical experience. Watching the production unfold feels at times like watching a director in conversation with Traquair itself.

And what a conversation it is. Mansfield is dealing not only with a complex site but with one of Shakespeare’s most challenging plays. The Taming of the Shrew remains a deeply problematic work for modern audiences, revolving as it does around the apparent “taming” of an outspoken woman through manipulation, deprivation and coercion. It can be an uncomfortable watch. If ever a Shakespeare play required taming itself, this might be it.

Indeed, this production might almost be described as The Taming of the Taming of the Shrew. Mansfield neither ignores nor apologises for the difficult material. Instead, she embraces the contradictions within it, allowing the audience to enjoy the wit, humour and energy of the play while remaining fully aware of the power structures and social assumptions being explored. The comedy remains intact, but the production invites us to question it rather than simply accept it.

At the heart of the evening is the relationship between Petruchio and Katherina. Their performances drive the production forward and provide much of its energy. Petruchio is played with a wonderfully elastic-faced comic style by Jasper Price (a name to look out for!) that repeatedly recalls a young Rick Mayall. One moment he is all swagger, mischief and physical comedy, the next he reveals flashes of seriousness beneath the bravado. It is a performance of considerable skill, never allowing the character to become merely a caricature.

Opposite him, the talented and indefatigable Esme Babineaux as Katherina (the titular Shrew) matches that energy at every turn. Fierce, intelligent and unwilling to surrender the stage to anyone, she creates a compelling counterpart. The verbal sparring between the pair crackles with life, drawing the audience into a relationship that is by turns hilarious, exasperating and unexpectedly moving. Together they provide the production with its emotional and comic centre.

The wider company embraces the promenade format with infectious enthusiasm. Dougal Fay’s Lucentio and Hannah O’Hare’s Tranio drive much of the comic misunderstanding, while Angus Shearer provides a commanding presence as Baptista. The substantial ensemble of young performers contributes enormously to the atmosphere, ensuring that every corner of the grounds feels alive with activity.

There is a wonderful moment during the Bianca subplot where Shakespeare’s former life as a tutor seems to come bubbling to the surface. A Latin lesson becomes an exercise in flirtation, and only Shakespeare could make the conjugation of Latin verbs seem remotely sexy. It is knowingly absurd, delightfully cheeky and beautifully played here.

Indeed, throughout the production Mansfield embraces the fact that Shakespeare was never as polite as posterity sometimes pretends. The stage is alive with suggestive glances, playful physicality and visual innuendo. From tongues in places they shouldn’t be to jokes involving the vigorous fingering of instruments, there is a surprising amount of sexual humour on display. Such moments may still raise a laugh or an eyebrow today, but they would likely have been much more shocking, and enjoyable, to audiences four hundred years ago. It is a timely reminder that alongside all the debate about power, patriarchy and social convention, Shakespeare was also one of the great comic entertainers, writing not for an academic seminar but for a crowd eager to be amused.

The live music deserves special mention. Rather than functioning as simple accompaniment, the musicians become part of the storytelling itself, drawing audiences through the estate and binding together the various locations into a coherent theatrical journey. The music is also wonderfully gloopy and intentionally off-key, played with faux seriousness. The result feels closer to a dreamscape than a conventional performance, with theatre, music and landscape working in harmony.

One of the enduring pleasures of Shakespeare at Traquair is the way the unexpected continually intrudes. A distant peacock call, the rustle of leaves in the trees, shifting evening light across the gardens, even the occasional curious animal become part of the performance. Rather than distracting from the action, these moments enrich it, reminding us that theatre began in spaces far less controlled than the modern auditorium.

This year’s production also carries additional resonance. The programme is dedicated to Flora Alchiton, whose vision helped establish Shakespeare at Traquair some thirty years ago. Watching actors, musicians and audience members weave through the grounds on a summer evening, it is easy to appreciate the legacy she helped create. Few theatrical experiences feel so deeply connected to their setting.

As darkness gradually gathers over the estate and the final scenes unfold, what lingers is not merely a sense of having watched a play, but of having shared in something unique. Cleverly directed, energetically performed and beautifully integrated into its surroundings, this is Shakespeare that feels alive, accessible and relevant.

Traquair’s The Taming of the Shrew succeeds not because it solves all the play’s difficulties, but because it acknowledges them while still allowing the audience to delight in the storytelling. In doing so, Kath Mansfield and a dedicated and wonderfully talented cast have achieved something rather remarkable.

Till Saturday 6^th June.

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 30th May 2026

North West End UK Rating:

Running time – 2hrs 45mins (with interval)