Traverse Theatre Announces 2016 Spring Season

The Traverse Theatre has announced its Spring season that features new work from Scotland and beyond including returning shows that you may have missed or want a chance to enjoy again.

The programme includes what are now familiar landmarks in the Traverse calendar in the form of the favourite festivals, the visual theatre manipulate that runs from 31 January – 6 February and children’s Imaginate that runs from 28 May – 5 June.

A Play, A Pie and A Pint makes a welcome return between 15 March and 16 April with five new plays from emerging and established playwrights.

Returning to the Traverse stage as part of a UK tour are Andy Duffy’s highly successful Crash about an enigmatic trader attempting to rebuild his life following a tragedy and Jenna Watt‘s How You Gonna Live Your Dash that’s based on real-life testimonies and featuring dazzling pyrotechnic effects; Eva O’Connor with her award winning production My Name is Saoirse ; Gary McNair with his award-winning Festival hit Donald Robertson Is Not A Stand-Up Comedian and 05 May Election night sees the unique mix of politics, poetry, music and analysis that is Two Minute Manifesto.

On the music front, each Monday from the 18th January sees the Soundhouse residency, an exciting and eclectic mix of musicians playing live in the Traverse Café Bar.

New writing and workshops

The season begins in January with two evenings of exciting new work from the next generation of playwrights in the Traverse’s flagship schools project Class Act. Now in its twenty-fourth year, it represents the Theatre’s continuing commitment to finding and nurturing young people who wish to explore ideas and the world around them through the medium of writing and performance.

Writing skills are nurtured with Scribble aimed at ages 15 – 18 starts on 18 January when a ten-week course offers young writers the opportunity to work with members of the Traverse Artistic Team to learn the skills that enable them to turn ideas into great scripts. Starting on Monday 15 February for 10 weeks, the Traverse Young Writers course invites participants to join and learn from a network how to hone their playwriting skills through debate and discussion.

Words, Words, Words is a no-holds-barred, work-in-progress, where selected writers are offered a slot of up to ten minutes each to explore work. The emphasis is on progress and scripts will be brought to life by a company of actors after a day’s rehearsals. 16 January is the Diverse Stories and Writing for Performance workshop playwright May Sumbwanyambe.

New Productions

From February through to June is a programme of drama and dance that includes 2009 CATS Award for Best Male Performance Award winner Matthew Zajac with The Tailor of Inverness and Scottish Dance Theatre’s double bill of Dreamers by Anton Lachky and Process Day by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar.

March sees award winning Sherman Cymru’s Iphigenia In Splott; Vanishing Point’s latest work The Destroyed Room; Stowaway by Hannah Barker and Lewis Hetherington and choreographer Marc Brew’s stripped back.For Now, I Am . . . .

Fire Exit presents a co-production with Tron Theatre at the Traverse withInternational Waters , a twist on asylum seeking; the concept that parents are flawed human beings is the topic ofGods Are Fallen and All Safely Gone by Selma Dimitrijevic; Blackout by Mark Jeary is about alcoholism and recovery and White & Givan return to the Traverse with their new dance work Breathe.

No less than five shows will première this season starting with Mike Bartlett’s Cock by the Tron Theatre Company when a civilised dinner rapidly descends into a messy cockfight. This is followed by Robert Softley Gale’s Purposeless Movements whose five performers have cerebral palsy and whose stories are used to ask what it is to move and be moved. Later in March, Stellar Quines brings Rebecca Sharp’s The Air That Carries The Weight after which Lung Ha Theatre Company presents Douglas Maxwell’s The Silent Treatment where the imperative to speak during a sponsored silence is cranked to new heights by the knowledge that one of your team has just won wads of cash, and Michael Boyd returns to the Traverse to direct Right Now, an exploration of one woman’s crisis and darkest desires by Québécois playwright, Catherine-Anne Toupin.

Voices of youth are to the fore with PASS Out, a showcase of new, devised work that will be created by the students from Performing Arts Studio Scotland (PASS) at Edinburgh College who have worked with leading professional exponents to produce the work you will see on stage. And Strange Town Youth Theatre, in collaboration with playwright and Traverse 50 alumnus Alan Gordon, has created two new playsWhat Next? / What Now? exploring what matters to the next generation.

Booking for all shows at The Traverse Theatre box office on www.traverse.co.uk or 0131 228 1404