The Traverse Theatre is Scotland's new writing theatre. From its conception in 1963, it has embraced a spirit of innovation and risk-taking that has launched the careers of many of Scotland's best-known writers. With two custom-built and versatile theatre spaces, the Traverse’s home in Edinburgh’s city centre is a powerhouse of vibrant new work. 'The Traverse is the festival's most prestigious home for serious drama' (New York Times).

Set inside of a hospital room, audiences experience the work one at a time, alone with the artist, as he tells the story of being diagnosed with a rare, severe and chronic immune condition – in his very first year of starting testosterone. Through music, projection and physical theatre, this radical act of connection blurs the lines between audience and performer, theatre and installation art, and stands boldly outside of ordinary theatrical conventions. Each performance can be spontaneously altered: offering Relaxed performances, tactile tours, audio description and closed captions on demand.

I'm Ready to Talk Now

In Red Like Fruit, Lauren asks Luke to narrate her life: her fraying mental health, the growing unease she feels in the world. Lauren’s been reporting on a high-profile case of domestic violence and she’s been thinking back with eerie ambivalence on a set of sexual events from her own adolescence. Something in her has started to crack. Soon, Lauren can no longer comprehend her own story (or why she asked Luke to narrate for her in the first place). Red Like Fruit interrogates complexities of complicity, consent, patriarchy and traumatic memory in the post #MeToo era.

Red Like Fruit

It's the early noughties and Lucie Barât is fresh out of drama school busy auditioning for laxative-ads and flipping burgers. While in the next room of their shared flat, cult Indie band The Libertines are rising to dizzying fame. But what about being the frontman's sister? While her brother's band skyrockets to stardom gaining a chaotic rock and roll reputation, Lucie can't get signed. Dodging exes, sycophants, unwanted advances and drinking dry the free bar, Lucie is forced to question her failures. And her sexuality. A whirlwind of hilarity, chaos, addiction and awkward self-discovery.

Standing in the Shadows of Giants

In this intricate and playful solo show, inspired by his involvement in the Egyptian revolution of 2011, and the counter-revolution that followed, actor and activist Khalid Abdalla (United 93, The Kite Runner, The Crown) takes us on a journey into his history, set against a cartography of seismic world events. From the histories of colonialism and decolonisation; friendship and loss; protests and uprising against regimes across the world; to the violence in Gaza following the events of October 7th 2023, Khalid brings together the personal and the political in an act of anti-biography. HereAndNowShowcase.uk

Nowhere – Here & Now Showcase

Direct from its sell-out North American premiere. Two brothers – one a progressive novelist, the other a convicted murderer and high-ranking member of a white supremacist prison gang – shared a traumatic childhood. Now adults, these men navigate the edges of their bond. Are they truly so different? Award-winning US playwright Gabriel Jason Dean's edgy new play is inspired by the real-life relationship with his own brother and asks if it's truly possible to love someone whose beliefs you hate. Heartbreakingly honest, RIFT is an urgent and hopeful exploration of race, power and ideological divides.

RIFT

A 90th birthday party that no one seems to want. Four generations of Northern Irish women, reunited under one roof. A house full of hungry ghosts, with more than one skeleton in the closet. Turn off your phones at dinner. Winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2022, Karis Kelly’s play is a pitch-black and twisted tale of dysfunctional family dynamics, generational trauma and national boundaries. In association with the Lyric Theatre Belfast.

Consumed

What are the odds of living an extraordinary life? This is the story of one boy's grandad who won a fortune betting on the 1966 World Cup and, when diagnosed with cancer, gambles it all on living to see the year 2000. This intergenerational tale by Gary McNair explores what we live for and what we leave behind, having toured the world since making its award-winning, sell-out world premiere at the Traverse in 2015. Now it's back home for a special run of shows to mark its 10th anniversary.

A Gambler's Guide to Dying

What happens when Scotland's premier dame, Johnny McKnight, collaborates with award-winning director John Tiffany? It results in a riotous, heartfelt journey into the wild world of pantomime. She's Behind You unearths the magic and madness behind the curtain with a story as touching as it is hilarious. It's a celebration of shifting traditions, transformation and the unexpected joy found in the anarchy of pantomime.

She's Behind You

1856, New York. Eunice sits in what will become Central Park and wonders if her research into CO2 is telling her something is going horribly wrong. 2027, London. Claire falls in love as the heatwave breaks, and the streets begin to flood. 2100, Svalbard. While an 86-day storm rages outside, Ana hears a baby crying in the seed vault. The world is ending, sure. But what happens in between? A fast-paced, funny and wildly inventive look at 250 years of real and imagined history through the eyes of three couples.

The Beautiful Future Is Coming

A moving and darkly comic remix of Shakespeare’s play told from the point of view of Joy, a person with dementia who is living in an old memory of rehearsing King Lear. Joy’s delicately maintained reality is upended by the arrival of her estranged son who, being cast as Cordelia must find a way to speak his piece from within the limited role he’s given. Using puppetry, projection and live video effects, the audience are landed in Joy’s world as layers of her past and present, fiction and reality, overlap and distort. A thought-provoking meditation on theatre.

Lost Lear

In 90s sitcom Goodness Gracious Me, one of Nina Wadia’s many characters can make everything at home, with a small... what? For questions like this and more, join us for Lucky Tonight! where quizmaster extraordinaire (and former contestant of The Chase) Afreena will put you through your paces to help tell her story. From the streets of Old Trafford to the coast of Chittagong, Afreena shares what it means to be British and Bangladeshi, whilst not really fitting into either of them... An interactive pub quiz-cum-theatre show written and performed by Afreena Islam-Wright. P.S. The answer is aubergine.

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