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.

June 2026

The Table (Lung Ha)
By Christine Devaney, Maria Oller & Jo Timmins.
Thur 18 – Sat 20 June 2026
Evenings: 7.30pm; Sat mat: 2.30pm (Trav 1).
A bold new intergenerational dance theatre production that questions who gets a seat at the table – and what unfolds once we’re there. Who’s been invited and who got to make the invitations? Curious Seed and Lung Ha Theatre Company (in association with Lyra) join forces again fora multi-layered performance experience that invites us to think about where we belong and how we show up for one another. Book here.

TravFest26 Listings

NB: The Traverse generally rotates productions over the day, so they do not play the same time one day after the other. The exceptions are off-site productions and the late night production of The Singer in Trav 1, which is at either 9.15pm or 9.30pm. Productions do not play on Mondays.

Cathy
Written and directed by Eilidh Loan
Traverse Theatre Production
Fri 31 Jul – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Previews: Fri 31 Jul, Fri 7 Aug, Sat 8 Aug.
Sun 9 – Sun 30 Aug: Various times (not Mon). (Trav 1).
Elaine C. Smith, Alan Orr, Sally Reid and Michele Gallagher in young Scottish writer Eilidh Loan’s new comedy inspired by her grandmother, and how she dealt with the grief in her unique way after losing her husband. Cathy, Eilidh’s grandmother, insisted that Elaine C Smith must play her and so she is. Book here.

Supposing:
Written and directed by Zinnie Harris
Traverse Theatre Company
Fri 31 Jul – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Previews: Fri 31 Jul, Sat 1, Thu 6 Aug.
Fri 7 – Sun 30 Aug (not Mon): Various times. (Trav 2).
A curse has fallen on Sally’s house. Unexpected, unwanted and hard to shake. Worst of all, no one will believe her. As the line between certainty and doubt begins to blur, Sally must decide whether to trust what she sees, and what happens if she’s right. Book here.

Bog Witch
By Bryony Kimmings and co-directed by Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Avalon & Tellus Studio
Sun 2 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Previews Sun 2, Sat 8 Aug.
Sun 9 – Sun 30 Aug (not Mons): Various times. (Trav 1)
Bryony Kimmings returns to the stage with her first solo show in half a decade. As with all her previous shows, it follows a part of Kimmings’ real life story, this time the journey of uprooting her and her son’s life to live in a tumbledown cottage in the wilderness to plug back into nature as a last-ditch attempt to be happy and sane. Book here.

The Singer
Music & Lyrics by KT Tunstall, book and direction by Cora Bissett
Dundee Rep Theatre and Solar Bear in collaboration with Aberdeen Performing Arts
Tue 4 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Previews Tue 4 (7pm), Sat 8 (9.30pm) Aug.
Sun 9 – Sun 30 Aug (not Mons): 9pm or 9.15pm. (Trav 1)
A bold, new, thrilling piece of gig-theatre about Joe, a deaf artist who “sings” with his hands, and Andy, a washed-up musician hungry for a comeback. When their unlikely creative partnership sparks something extraordinary, ambition and belonging collide. But as prejudice and the music industry’s ableist blind spots close in, their bond is pushed to breaking point. Book here.

Mrs. Stern Wanders The Prussian State Library
By Jenny Lyn Bader directed by Ari Laura Kreith
Luna Stage and Richard Jordan Productions with Traverse Theatre
Thu 6 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Preview: Thu 6 Aug.
Fri 7 – Sun 30 Aug (not Mons): Various times. (Trav 2)
Berlin 1933. With martial law in effect, political activism has become a capital crime. When a young Gestapo officer arrests a philosophy graduate student, her interrogation will endanger them both. Direct from its Off-Broadway premiere and inspired by the real life arrest of Hannah Arendt, Jenny Lyn Bader’s timely new play illuminates the struggle for human connection and perseverance in even the darkest of times. Book here.

For Delores
By Eva O’Connor, directed by Jim Culleton
Fishamble in association with Lime Tree Theatre
Presented by Belltable, Galway International Arts Festival and Traverse Theatre
Thu 6 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Preview: Thu 6 Aug 3.15pm.
Fri 7 – Sun 30 Aug (not Mons): Various times. (Trav 2)
Mo (the Scottish one) and Realtín (the Irish one) party, play and blaze their way through the Edinburgh student dream. Set in Glasgow a couple of years later, For Dolores is about friendship, motherhood and coming to terms with your worst mistakes. Like twin stars in obsessive orbit, it’s a friendship, a rivalry and an adventure. Risk is a delicious pleasure: until it all explodes in the blink of an eye. Book here.

Badgers
By Malaika Kegode, directed by Jenny Davies
A Theatre Royal Plymouth Production Presented in association with Bristol Old Vic
Thu 6 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Preview: Thu 6 Aug.
Fri 7 – Sun 30 Aug (not Mons): Various times. (Trav 2)
Something has taken root in this town. A recluse, a disappearance, a mysterious folk song. And then there’s you, Meles — a podcaster with a dying mother and a stalling career — about to stumble into something unfathomable. Something that could change everything. But is it your story to tell? Book here.

After Party
By Morna Young, directed by Katie Posner
Traverse co-pro with Paines Plough & Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
Thu 6 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Previews: Thu 6, Sat 8 Aug.
Sun 9 – Sun 30 Aug (not Mons): Various times. (Trav 1)
Matriarch Vivienne Blackwood has always lived life on her own terms; much to the frustration of her fractured family. Summoning them for her 80th birthday party, they arrive expecting the usual family escapades. But as old tensions surface and beliefs collide, Vivienne’s reasons for gathering them soon unravels. Book here.

Transmission: Into the Dark
one step at a time like this and Richard Jordan Productions with Traverse Theatre
Fri 7 – Sun 23 Aug 2026
Daily (not Mons, Tue 18): 9.40pm, 10.20pm, 11pm & 11.40pm. (Traverse Elsewhere).
It’s night-time. You receive an address to a secret location. A mysterious voice speaks to you, drawing you towards unknown destinations, through Edinburgh’s darkened streets and into the soul of the night. Interweaving site-specific radio, installation, night-walking, and the sky, this invites audiences to embark on a nocturnal journey where the strange is real and the real is strange. Full details in booking link: Book here.

Little Animals
Conceived, written and performed by Paul Ready
Directed by Caroline Steinbeis
Fern Culture co-produced by Pentabus, in association with Gulbenkian Arts Centre
Tue 18 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Daily (not Mon 24): 1.30pm & 4pm (Traverse @ The Lyceum Studio)
You’re invited to Richard’s memorial. Richard is dead, after all. He’s gone. But his friend wasn’t invited to the funeral. And he can’t let go because something happened. Something he needs to lay to rest. This is his chance. The story of a life-long friendship, set in a culture that can’t stop consuming. Book here.

Autumn season

Thrice (Al Seed Productions)
Fri 23/Sat 24 Oct 2026
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
Macbeth is dead. Who will now heal the land? The world at the conclusion of Macbeth is one steeped in fear; where truth and delusion blur, and tyranny thrives. This is where Thrice begins. Both a response to Shakespeare’s play and to our present moment, Thrice places nine women – three trios – in the aftermath of the story. They remain after the bloodshed, asking what it might mean to live on in the shadow of ruin. Book here.

Man to Man
By Manfred Karge.
Thurs 29 Oct – Sat 7 Nov 2026
Times tbc.
In 1930s Germany, a woman puts on her dead husband’s trousers and never takes them off.  As the world around her changes, she endures war and dictatorship, hunger and humiliation – always fighting to stay alive.  Tilda Swinton returns to the live theatre stage in a revival of the 1987 production. Book here soon.