Traverse Listings
Upcoming shows at Edinburgh’s New Writing Theatre
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404
Website: www.traverse.co.uk.
The Traverse. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
Click on the name of the show to go to its ticketing site.
2019
February 2019
manipulate Visual Theatre Festival 2019
4 February 2019 – 9 February 2019
Various times
For their 12th festival, Puppet Animation Scotland are excited to present manipulate Visual Theatre Festival 2019: a dynamic, eclectic and captivating programme of Scottish and international visual and physical theatre, puppetry, object manipulation and animated film. Book here.
Performances: manipulate Visual Theatre Festival 2019
Various times
4 February 2019 – 9 February 2019
As well as dynamic work from leading Scottish companies, manipulate present the UK and Scottish premieres of critically acclaimed, award-winning international productions. Book here.
The Dark
Tue 12 – Wed 13 February 2019
Evenings: 8pm (Trav 2)
Fragments of a forgotten journey flicker in front of his eyes. It is night, November 1978. He is four years old. He is holding his mother’s hand as they wait on the escarpment. They are leaving Kampala. Buying safe passage and silence with all they have, they travel by matatu and the conductor asks no questions. Book here.
good dog
Thurs 14 – Sat 16 Feb 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Mum’s promised him that bike so even when school or home life bites, he knows to keep his chin up, his head down and his shirt clean. Because in the end, everyone who’s good gets what they deserve. Don’t they?Book here.
Little Gift
Fri 15 – Sat 16 Feb 2019
Fri: 1.30pm & 6.30pm; Sat: 11.30am & 3pm (Trav 2)
Told with exquisite puppetry, original music and a whole lot of heart, Little Gift is a brand-new story from multi-award-winners M6 Theatre and Andy Manley. It’s a visual feast bringing light into the darkest season of the year. Book here.
Ulster American
Wed 20 Feb – Sat 2 Mar 2019
Tue – Sat: 7.30pm; Matinees Fri 22 & Sat 2: 2pm (Trav 1)
Winner of the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award as well as a Scotsman Fringe First, the most talked-about show of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018 returns fresh from a smash-hit, sold out festival run. Book here.
The Pride Plays
Thursday 21 – Saturday 23 Feb 2019
Evenings: 7pm (Trav 2)
Join Shift for Scotland’s first ever LGBTQI+ playwright festival, as part of LGBT History Month Scotland 2019. The six plays will be performed as rehearsed readings followed by a post-show discussion led by the director and playwright.
Thursday 21 Feb:
Experience – The Podcast by Steven Fraser
Hotel Eirene by Christopher Moore
Friday 22 Feb:
The Dogwood by Nelly Kelly
Bug-Eyed by Ross Wylie
Saturday 23 Feb:
Captivity by Drew Taylor
A Rom-Com by Gemma McGinley
Book here.
March 2019
In Other Words
Fri 1 – Sat 2 Mar 2019
Evenings: 8pm (Trav 2)
Connected by the music of Frank Sinatra, this intimate, humorous and deeply moving love story explores the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and the transformative power of music in our lives. Book here.
The Dark Carnival
Wed 6 – Sat 9 Mar 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm; Mat Thurs 2.30pm (Trav 1)
A music and theatre spectacle, The Dark Carnival features sixteen performers and musicians who tell the story of newcomers to the afterlife who discover that death is not actually the end. Incredulous at their continuity, they form their own necropolitan community where every night is party night. Created and performed by Vanishing Point and A New International. Book here.
The Funeral Director
Thurs 7 – Sat 9 Mar 2019
Evenings: 8pm (Trav 2)
Life as the director of a Muslim funeral parlour isn’t always easy, but Ayesha has things pretty sorted. She and Zeyd share everything: a marriage, a business, a future. Book here.
Fat Blokes
Fri 15 – Sat 16 Mar 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Fat Blokes is a sort of dance show about flab, double chins and getting your kit off in public. It uncovers why fat men are never sexy but are always funny, always the ‘before’ but never the ‘after’ shot. Book here.
National Theatre Connections 2019
Sun 17 – Wed 20 Mar 2019
Evenings: 7pm.
The National Theatre Connections festival is a celebration of young people, theatre-making and the importance of access to the arts. Book here.
Velvet Petal
Sat 23 March 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Fleur Darkin’s Velvet Petal returns, unveiling a fresh, new version never-before-seen here in Edinburgh. Book here.
We Are All Just Little Creatures
Thurs 28 – Sat 30 March 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm; Mat Sat: 2.30pm (Trav 1)
We Are All Just Little Creatures celebrates the weird and wonderful things about being alive. We’re all born and we all die but so much else that connects us happens in between…Book here.
(Can This Be) Home
Thurs 28 Mar 2019
Evening: 8pm (Trav 2)
Half music gig, half spoken word, (Can This Be) Home, a show literally in the making since the summer before the EU referendum, takes stock of where we are now. Can we ever feel at home again?Book here.
April 2019
A Play, A Pie and A Pint: Spring 2019
9 Apr 2019 – 18 May 2019
Lunchtimes Tue – Sat: 1pm; Fri evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
A popular feature of the Traverse programme, A Play, A Pie and A Pint, Òran Mór returns with six new plays to light up your lunchtime. Ticket includes a pie and a drink. Book here.
PPP: Chic Murray – A Funny Place for a Window
Tue 9 – Sat 13 Apr 2019
Lunchtimes Tue – Sat: 1pm; Fri evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
The “Comedian’s Comedian” Chic Murray passed away in Edinburgh in 1985. On his last day on this earth, Chic takes a musical look back at the ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies of a glittering, but tragically flawed career that took him from an engineer’s apprenticeship in Kincaid’s Shipyard, Greenock, to the top of the bill at The London Palladium. Book here.
dressed.
Thurs 11 – Sat 13 Apr 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Multi-award-winning ThisEgg combine choreography, live sewing, comedy and original music to celebrate the power clothes have to define us, to liberate us, to hide us and to embellish us. Book here.
PPP: Lion Lion
Tue 16 – Sat 20 Apr 2019
Lunchtimes Tue – Sat: 1pm; Fri evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
George & Joy Adamson, like many others, loved the animal kingdom as much, probably more, than their fellow humans. Camping for years where humans were few, but dangerous wildlife teemed around them. With no mobiles, to relieve isolation, how did they react to the wilderness? Did they conduct themselves like civilised human beings? Or draw from the animals they studied? Book here.
What Girls Are Made Of
Tue 16 – Sat 20 Apr 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Fresh from an award-winning, sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe, performed with a live band, Cora Bissett’s What Girls Are Made Of returns to the Traverse Theatre. Book here.
Locker Room Talk
Tue 23 – Wed 24 Apr 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Following overwhelming response from previous runs at the Traverse Theatre, Abbey Theatre, Latitude Festival and The Scottish Parliament, Locker Room Talk returns to continue a conversation about misogyny and masculinity which has become even more urgent since its premiere. Book here.
PPP: The Mack
Tue 23 Apr 2019 – Sat 27 Apr 2019
Lunchtimes Tue – Sat: 1pm; Fri evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
Ninety years after his own demise, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s internationally acclaimed masterpiece lies in ruins. For the second time in four years a fire has torn through Glasgow’s most venerable building. Should we save the Mack or just let it go? Are there really things “more precious more beautiful – more lasting than life itself?”. Book here.
PASS Out 2019
Thurs 25 Apr 2019
Two performances: 5pm & 8pm (T2)
Edinburgh College’s Performing Arts Studio Scotland returns to the Traverse with their end of year showcase. Book here.
PPP: Casablanca-The Gin Joint Cut
Tue 30 April – Sat 4 May 2019
Lunchtimes Tue – Sat: 1pm; Fri evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
A lovingly disrespectful homage to one of the classic films of all time that will have you raise a Bogart style eyebrow, shed a Bergman-like tear and drown out the Nazis with a rousing chorus of the Marseillaise. Set in French Morocco, 1941, Casablanca interweaves a tale of wartime conflict with political and romantic intrigue. Book here.
May 2019
Donny’s Brain
Fri 3 – Sat 4 May 2019
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Donny wakes up in hospital after a car crash, desperate to see his partner Emma and unable to recognise the strange woman crying at his bedside. Funny and moving in equal measure, Rona Munro’s new play presented as a rehearsed, script-in-hand reading directed by Caitlin Skinner, raises fascinating questions about the essence of love, human nature and our sense of self Book here.
PPP: The Origins of Ivor Punch
Tue 7 – Sat 11 May 2019
Lunchtimes Tue – Sat: 1pm; Fri evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
Based on the Edinburgh International First Book Award-winning novel The Letters of Ivor Punch by musician and author Colin MacIntyre (Mull Historical Society). Set in the present day and in the 1860’s on a remote Scottish island (based on the isle of Mull) that is about to give up its secrets, it explores mythology and how it washes up against faith. Book here.
Keep on Walking Federico
Thurs 9 – Sat 11 May 2019
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
One day, Mark gets a letter. This letter takes him to a sleepy Spanish town. He can’t speak the language and he knows nobody, but he’s not here for fun. He’s here to grapple with the past. Book here.
PPP: Toy Plastic Chicken
Tue 14 – Sat 18 May 2019
Lunchtimes Tue – Sat: 1pm; Fri evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
At Edinburgh Airport, a toy plastic chicken is suspected to be a bomb. A woman is screened for domestic radicalisation, while her interrogators decide to perform a violent and radical act of their own. Based on a true story, Toy Plastic Chicken is a violent comedic exploration of degradation and revolt. Book here.
Electrolyte
Tue 14 May 2019
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Follow Jessie through gigs, parties, city streets and warehouses, journeying from Leeds to London, on a quest to find her mother. Wildcard Theatre’s multi award-winning gig theatre show combines spoken word and original music to powerfully explore mental health for a contemporary audience. Book here.
Harbour
16 May 2019
Evening: 8pm (Trav 2).
Inspired by David Greig’s adaptation of Local Hero, Lyceum Original Sixty explore the idea of community, love and communication in search of their own local hero. Book here.
Shine
Thu 16 – Sat 18 May 2019
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Actor, rapper, singer and rising star Kema Sikazwe, also known as Kema Kay, makes his powerful stage debut mixing a bittersweet coming-of-age story with an electrifying live soundtrack and heartfelt words. Book here.
Traverse Young Writers’ Scratch Night
Sat 18 May 2019
Evening: 8pm (Trav 2).
A night celebrating the freshest new writing talent. Book here.
Double bill: RITUALIA & The Circle
Fri 24 – Sat 25 May 2019
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
An exhilarating new double bill from Scottish Dance Theatre: RITUALIA by Colette Sadler and a new commission, The Circle, by world renowned Emanuel Gat, promise an evening of exquisite, cutting-edge dance. Book here.
Twa
Fri 24 – Sat 25 May 2019
Evening: 8pm (Trav 2).
In a powerful blend of theatrical storytelling, animation and live performance drawing, award-winning writer Annie George and visual artist Flore Gardner unwind contrasting stories about women who are silenced. Book here.
June 2019
Drone
Tue 4 – Wed 5 June 2019
Evening: 8pm (Trav 2).
Harry Josephine Giles & Co. with a live jam of sound, visuals and poetry, telling the story of a military drone’s life and fears. Book here.
Alice in Wonderland
Thu 6 – Sat 8 June 2019
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
Alice in Wonderland, Blue Raincoat style, promises to be a visually sumptuous and physical re-telling of Lewis Carroll’s beloved work. Follow Alice on her strange journey through Wonderland with the Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter, the frantically late White Rabbit and Ireland’s longest running theatre ensemble. Book here.
549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War
Thu 6 – Sat 8 June 2019
Evening: 8pm (Trav 2).
Wonder Fools with the true story of four miners who, 80 years ago, travelled from the streets of Prestonpans to the valleys of Spain to join the International Brigade. Book here.
Little Boxes & Stolen Futures
Fri 14 – Sat 15 June 2019
Evening: 7pm & 8.30pm.
Strange Town with two plays from Catherine Exposito and James Beagopn. Little Boxes is an exploration of mental health and societal pressure on young people today. While Stolen Futures asks: Is survival enough? Struggling to live in a post-apocalyptic world, Becky had never seen a plane until the strangers landed, offering a better future. Book here.
ENDS
