Traverse
Maggie & Me
★★★☆☆ Resonant but unwieldy
The National Theatre of Scotland’s Maggie & Me, touring to the Traverse, is an odd beast indeed. It has a great deal to say about both the personal and the political, but some of it is lost in an over-ambitious, wildly inconsistent production.
Dead Girls Rising
★★★★☆ Emotional roller-coaster
Silent Uproar’s new touring production of Dead Girls Rising, at the Traverse for three performances, is an emotional roller-coaster of punk gig theatre focusing on two young women as they navigate a pathway through lives faced with misogyny and a violent patriarchy.
David Bowie & Me: Parallel Lives
★★★★☆ Hilarious reflections
Gilded Balloon’s presentation of Jack Docherty in David Bowie & Me: Parallel Lives takes a 1997 interview on Docherty’s TV chat show with his teenage hero, David Bowie as a starting point for some hilarious reflections on a childhood growing up in 1970s Edinburgh.
Louder
Showcase: Most worthwhile
Framework Theatre’s Louder is a showcase for “semi-staged draft works of four brand new plays, all written & directed by early-career artists of marginalised genders.”
PPP: Hotdog
★★★☆☆ Powerful
Hotdog by Ellen Ritchie, this week’s lunchtime theatre at the Traverse, is a powerful if uneven production, extremely well performed.
PPP: Pushin’ Thirty
★★★☆☆ Delicate
Traverse: Tue 19 – Sat 23 Mar 2024
Review by Hugh Simpson
Pushin’ Thirty at the Traverse is a delicate and evocative piece that does not always convince.
Escaped Alone
★★★★☆ Environmental dystopia
Following its Scottish premiere at The Tron earlier this month Escaped Alone, Caryl Churchill’s dystopian play that had its UK premiere at the Royal Court in 2016, comes to the Traverse for five performances only.
PPP: Starving
★★★★☆ Nutritious
Starving by Imogen Stirling, the latest Play, Pie and a Pint at the Traverse from Òran Mór in collaboration with Raw Materials, is a potent and fascinating piece.
PPP: Bread & Breakfast
★★☆☆☆ Spirited performances
Bread & Breakfast by Kirsty Halliday, this week’s Play, Pie and a Pint at the Traverse, moves away from the usual monologue or two-handed fare into the honourable tradition of misunderstandings, falling over and sticking your foot in a bucket.
PPP: JACK
★★★☆☆ Promising
Jack by Liam Moffat, the first offering from A Play, A Pie and a Pint in 2024 at the Traverse, is a charmingly exuberant production.
