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 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.
April 2024
Acting Showcase 2024 QMU
Tue 23/Wed 24 Apr 2024
Tue: 7.30pm, Wed: 2.30pm (Trav 1).
Queen Margaret University 4th year BA(Hons) Acting and Performance company showcase their talents to the wider acting industry and celebrate their achievement with family and friends with two hander scenes, songs and snippets of the graduate digital showcase. All of these will be costumed by QMUs Costume Design and Construction students. Book here.
Costume Showcase 2024 QMU
Fri 26/Sat 27 Apr 2024
Fri: 7.30pm, Sat: 12.30pm (Trav 1).
A 50-minute fast-moving catwalk display of the amazing, historical/ fantastical/weird and wonderful/ bold and beautiful costumes designed and created by the students of Queen Margaret University’s Costume Design and Construction Course – modelled by student models drawn from across the Performing Arts Department. 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 2024
Louder: A project for New Writers (Framework TC)
Fri 3 May 2024
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
A night of new writing from emerging theatre-makers of marginalised genders. Four short plays inspired by the theme Louder: The Peri Effect by Caroline Mentiplay; The Rats’ Whisper by Jinling Wu; bright as a dropped coin by King Hoberon and Louder Than Words by Fiona Moon. Directed by Coco Schogler, Sarah Marie Mooney, Heath Virgoe and Emma Lynne Harley. Book here.
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
June 2024
Storm Lantern (Strange Town Touring Company)
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.
Tide 1: It’s Not the End of the World (Strange Town)
By Rachel O’Regan, perf by Thursday 14-18s group
Wed 19 & Sat 22 June 2024
Wed: 7pm; Sat: 3pm (Trav 1).
February 2024 – Low Tide. Porty Beach: not only the perfect place to see a once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower, but also your ideal venue for a full-blown existential crisis. Whilst all of Edinburgh looks to the stars, rumours spread of an impending apocalypse; maybe the Mayans were a few years off! With overwhelming hopes, deep-seated fears, and empty bank accounts to be confronted, there’s only one thing for it – have some ‘special’ brownies (with chips on the side) and dig a massive hole. Book here.
Tide 2: Adrift (Strange Town)
By Isla Cowan, perf by Monday All Ages group
Thurs 20 & Sat 22 June 2024
Thurs: 7pm, Sat: 5pm (Trav 1).
June 2024 – Ebb Tide. It’s been 15 weeks since the huge hole appeared. 15 weeks since Anna went missing; they say she was last seen heading into the sea. Everyone wants to move on – except Jenny. When a message in a bottle washes up on Porty Beach, Jenny is convinced that Anna’s still out there and means to prove it. Despite the doubters, she plans to face the waves and join her friend…whatever the cost. Book here.
Tide 3: My Kind of Weird (Strange Town)
By James Beagon, perf by Tuesday 14-18s group
Wed 19 & Sat 22 June 2024
Fri, Sat: 7pm (Trav 1).
September 2024 – High Tide. ‘She’ likes ‘her’, ‘they’re’ well over ‘him’, and ‘he’ doesn’t even know ‘they’ exist. Romantic rendezvous and excruciating entanglements collide in this new, almost-Shakespearean, anti rom-com. On the last day of sunshine that Edinburgh will see for some time, will romance be dead by sunset? Why is there STILL a massive hole on the beach? And will a message of love in a very timely bottle save the day? Book here.
September 2024
The Choriza May Show (Choriza May)
Fri 13 Sept 2024
One performance: 8pm (Trav 1).
Fresh from their appearance on BBC Three’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK VS The World, Choriza May hits the road with their first ever solo theatre show extravaganza. Expect big drag energy, lots of laughs, breathtaking lip syncs, dazzling costumes, fruitilicious music and an appearance from everyone’s favourite owl! Book here.
ENDS
