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

The Traverse. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic

The Traverse is Scotland’s leading new writing theatre. It has two performance spaces: Traverse 1 can accommodate 214-270 people depending on its configuration; the studio space, Traverse 2, seats up to 123 people.

Access: there is level access to the Box Office area and lift access to the Bar and theatre spaces downstairs. Full access guide here.

March 2023

Pushin’ Thirty (PPP)
Tue 19 – Sat 23 Mar 2024
Daily: 1pm (Trav 2).
Scott and Eilidh had huge dreams when they won their high school talent show with an original song. Now, they’re both approaching thirty, neither of their lives are going anywhere, and they haven’t spoken to each other in over ten years. A new comedy about two former best friends in Dundee who are reunited after a chance encounter, with original songs by Dundee-based company Elfie Picket. Book here.

Don’t. Make. Tea.
Thurs 21/Fri 22 Mar 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
Æ review: ★★★★☆ Surprising
The near future. Chris never wanted to end up here. She’s a proud woman and hates asking for help but when her condition deteriorated she had no choice but to claim benefits. Ralph believes in the new system. He knows it can work for Chris. He’s here today, in her home, to assess her, to prove she is fit and capable of working. Can Chris persuade him to change his mind? And, if not, how far is she willing to go to save herself? Book here.

Hotdog (PPP)
Tue 26 – Sat 30 Mar 2024
Daily: 1pm (Trav 2).
Alone, dressed as a sausage in a bun and armed with only a bottle of lemonade, Hotdog is determined to be the life of the party. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Hotdog explores the aftermath of a traumatic event and how it feels to lose yourself when you thought you were only just beginning. Book here.

Pass Double Bill
Wed 27/Thurs 28 Mar 2024
Daily: 2pm/3.30pm, 7pm/8.30pm (Trav 2)
The Grandfathers by Rory Mullarkey. Delve into the intimate realm of personal warfare, unraveling the profound journey of individuals trained to defend their country. Comment Is Free by James Fritz. Centred around a journalist whose controversial opinions stir up a media storm and inflammatory behaviour provokes a malicious attack. Available as a double bill or individual shows. Book here.

Hitch
Fri 29 Mar 2024
One show 8pm (Trav 2).
Kieren Hurley’s critically-acclaimed debut solo show. A coming-of-age road movie for the stage, it’s a story of a strangers and service stations, of the search for community, and of jaded youth seeking hope in a failing world. Now, 15 years after its premiere, Hurley returns to this play, older, and in a much-changed world, to ask what its spirit of political hope might mean to us now in an era like this one. Work in progress; script-in-hand reading. Book here.

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Introverts the Musical
Sat 30 Mar 2024
One show 8pm (Trav 2).
The first of the Tandem Writers series of short play readings expanding on their previous stories. Introverts! The Musical by Amy Hawes, with music by Aaron McGregor is about mental health, neurodiversity, family and fitting in. For anyone who’s ever been told they are too quiet – because introverts deserve musicals too! Book here.

April 2023

The Scaff (PPP)
Tue 2 – Sat 6 Apr 2024
Daily: 1pm (Trav 2).
Liam plays football at school with a close-knit group of lads who decide to enact revenge when they find out that he has been called the worst thing ever – a ‘Scaff’. When the scheme fails and ends up severely injuring the star striker, the consequences rip apart not only the boys’ friendship but the entire school. An epic and nostalgic comedy about a group of misfits who plot the worst football tackle of all time. Book here.

This Is Memorial Device
Wed 3 – Sat 6 Apr 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm ; Sat Mat: 2pm (Trav 1)
Æ EdFringe ’23 Review: ★★★★☆ Phantasmagoric realism
The fictional history of 1980s Airdrie’s mysterious, post-punk legends it is a gloriously hallucinatory journey, back to the hopes and dreams of early adulthood, performed by Paul Higgins (The Thick of It, Slow Horses) with music by Stephen McRobbie (The Pastels) and Gavin Thomson. Adapted and Directed by Graham Eatough. Book here.

90 Days
Fri 12 – Sun 14 Apr 2024
Fri: 7pm; Sat 8pm; Sun: 2pm (Trav 1)
Set in the 1990s, 90 Days tells the story of how Scotland’s first women’s rugby players galvanised the Scottish rugby community to become the unlikely saviours of the 1994 Women’s Rugby World Cup after its sudden cancellation by the powerful rugby elite. Uplifting, musical and moving, 90 Days lifts a glass to friendship, tenacity, empowerment, and love. Book here.

Chicken
Thurs 18 – Sat 20 Apr 2024
Evenings: 8pm (Trav 2).
Don Murphy is a proud Irish man, a hopeless ketamine addict and one of his generation’s greatest actors. He also happens to be a chicken. A Kerry cock to be precise. Across one fateful night, the feathered Oscar winner shares his star-studded story with an intimate audience. Book here.

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Rage Room
Sat 27 Apr 2024
Shows at 8pm (Trav 2).
Mhairi Quinn with the second of Tandem Writers’ series of short play reading. Local ‘celebrity’/podcaster/influencer Jos has invited her mum and older sister along as her ‘plus 2’ to sample the delights of Glasgow’s first ever Rage Room. Three women, one rage room, a few baseball bats and a lifetime of things unsaid – what could possibly go wrong? Book here.

May 2023

Jack Docherty in David Bowie and Me: Parallel Lives
Thurs 16 – Sat 18 May 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
The comic, author, actor and writer uses his time spent with Bowie on The Jack Docherty Show in 1997 as a jumping off point to take audiences through topics from first love, hedonism, mortality and why you should always meet your heroes. Book here.

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Ivor
Sat 18 May 2024
Shows at 8pm (Trav 2).
Jennifer Adam with the final in the Tandem Writers’ series of short play readings. What do you buy the kid who has everything for their 21st birthday? Sarah’s got this one covered. A play about sustainability and survival and asks how far you are willing to go for the things you love the most, when those things begin to slip away. Book here.

Dead Girls Rising
Book & Lyrics Maureen Lennon, music & lyrics Anya Pearson.
Tue 21 – Thur 23 May 2024

Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
A furious coming-of-age punk cabaret show about trying to survive in a violent patriarchy, our deepest fears, and how we seek to control them. It’s a play about holding your breath as you walk home at night. It’s a play about the edges of us and how the world sharpens them. Book here

Storm Lantern
Tue 4 – Thurs 6 June 2024
Evenings: 8pm (Trav 2).
The Strange Town Touring Company with Duncan Kidd’s play about Sophie Scholl. Caught by the Nazis distributing forbidden leaflets, she is facing execution. Only one route remains: confession and betrayal of everything she stood for… but will she take it? What would you be willing to die for? Book here.

The Last Pearl
Thurs 6 – Sat 8 June 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
A strong visual theatre piece using scaled models as well as bunraku and shadow puppetry, The Last Pearl tells the story of a woman, and in the aftermath of a typhoon, with her daughter, as they scavenge and explore in a dying world. It is the story of their ability to adapt to a changing environment and ultimately survive. Book here.

Maggie & Me
Wed 12 – Sat 15 June 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm; Sat mat: 2.30pm (Trav 1).
It’s October 12, 1984 – the Brighton bombing. Maggie Thatcher emerges from the rubble, dusty but defiant and somehow in the living room of 8-year-old Damian Barr in Newarthill. No time for turning, so buckle up for a surreal yet so-real rollercoaster ride through Damian’s painful past rediscovering who he really is. Book here.

Lie Low
Wed 12 – Sat 15 June 2024
Shows at 8pm (Trav 2).

Faye’s afraid. She’s not sleeping, she doesn’t trust ducks and all she’s had to eat this week is a box of dry Rice Krispies. A doctor recommends a form of exposure therapy, so Faye enlists the help of her brother, Naoise. But Naoise has a devastating secret that’s about to explode. Book here.

ENDS