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.

Autumn season

Contact (PPP)
By Jonny Donahoe, directed by Ben Standish.
Tue 13 – Sat 17 Oct 2026
Daily: 1pm (Trav 2).
A tragicomedy exploring the toxic relationship between a mother and her adult son. A son turns up at his mother’s house. It’s the first time in months that they have seen each other. She remarks that he’s put on weight. He tells her that he is going to be a father, but he also has an ultimatum: fix their relationship or he will not speak to her ever again. Lunchtime theatre: ticket includes a pie and a pint. Book here.

Bottom’s Dream (PPP)
By Martin O’Connor, directed by Debbie Hannan.
Tue 20 – Sat 24 Oct 2026
Daily: 1pm (Trav 2).
Blending the text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with original Scots-language poetry, this new spoken word performance by Martin O’Connor follows Nick Bottom the Weaver’s journey to the stage. From industry to the arts, his clash with modern-day celebrity and what he’ll need to sacrifice to achieve his dream. Lunchtime theatre: ticket includes a pie and a pint. Book here.

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
Daily, not Sun: 7.30pm; Sat mats: 2.30pm (Trav 1)
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. Returns only.

Rotten Work & The Game of Life (Scottish Dance Theatre)
By Emilie Leriche & Edouard Hue.
Tue 10/Wed 11 Nov 2026
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
Scottish Dance Theatre, Scotland’s flagship contemporary dance company, presents a captivating new double bill by internationally acclaimed choreographers Emilie Leriche (US/Sweden) and Edouard Hue (Switzerland). Book here.

No Apologies (Marlborough Productions)
By Emma Frankland, directed by Harry Clayton-Wright.
Thur 12/Fri 13 Nov 2026
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
A radical mis-remembering of Nirvana’s iconic 1993 MTV Unplugged concert.Urgent and politically sharp, No Apologies is a spectacular collision between theatre and grunge, autobiography and alternate history, weaving together threads of pop culture with mythology and ritual, fuelled by the experience of coming-of-age in the nineties. Book here.

No Woman is an Island
By Róisín Stack.
Fri 13/Sat 14 Nov 2026
Evening: 7pm; Sat mat: 2pm (Trav 2).
Three years ago a theatremaker set out to investigate woman’s tireless pursuit of alone time. She presents her findings, veering between texts from great female thinkers, banal thoughts about crockery and intimate vignettes from a marriage. A meditation on geographies of the Self. It maps the internal and external spaces in which we live our lives while walking a wonky line through cultural theories and histories of female solitude. Book here.

Team Viking
By James Rowland, directed by Daniel Goldman.
Thurs 19 – Sat 21 Nov 2026
Evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
Fifteen years ago, James’s best friend Tom was diagnosed with heart cancer and given three months to live. His last wish was to be given a full Viking burial. Team Viking is the remarkable, hilarious and heart-lifting story of how James actually gave his best mate the send-off he wanted. Book here.

Perfect Dead Girls (Audaciously Tenacious)
By Chelsea Grace and Elizabeth Robbins.
Tue 24/Wed 25 Nov 2026
Evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
In a purgatory plastered with graffiti, glitter, and teenage angst, two young girls find themselves trapped after their sudden deaths only to discover that they are not alone: something else is here, watching them, deciding who gets to leave and who gets left behind. A gruesome yet tender celebration of the joys and paranoias of girlhood, and an exploration of how young women survive in systems that ask them to tear each other down. Book here.

Page2Stage (Genesis Theatre)
Produced by Michelle McKay, Amie Burns Walker and Nay Dhanak.
Wed 25 Nov 2026
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
P2S showcases extracts from 4 brand new plays, performed as rehearsed readings in front of a live audience and an industry panel providing dramaturgical feedback during the event giving a glimpse behind the curtain. Book here.

The Witching Hour (Works in Progress)
By Not So Nice! Theatre Company.
Wed 2 Dec 2026
Evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
Step into the liminal space where the clock strikes thirteen and the ordinary dissolves into the uncanny. The Witching Hour brings together a collection of new writing from emerging playwrights exploring the eerie; where the veil between worlds wears thin. Step into new realms where the scriptures become unscripted, the frightening become the frightened and the paranormal becomes… normal? Book here.

Squidge (White Noise Theatre)
By Tiggy Bayley.
Thur 3/Fri 4 Dec 2026
Evening: 7pm (Trav 2).
Daisy Wright is in her early twenties, broke, furious and freshly bereaved. Taking a stopgap job as a one-to-one support assistant in an inner-city primary school, she’s assigned to Paddy Connors: a sharp, chaotic Irish Traveller boy with a talent for disruption and a grief he can’t name. As Daisy ricochets between the staffroom, the toilets and her sofa, an unlikely friendship begins to crack open her numbness. Book here.