'A RESPECTABLE WIDOW' and CLEAN Set for Traverse's 'Theatre at Breakfast', Aug 13-25

Theatre at breakfast is once again on the menu this Festival. Back by popular demand are two acclaimed Traverse Theatre Company productions which were developed from script-in-hand readings last year as part of the Herald Angel award-winning Dream Plays series. The shows will run Tuesday 13 - Sunday 25 August 2013.

Clean and A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity return to The Traverse, being performed this Festival as polished low-fi productions, directed by Traverse Artistic Director Orla O'Loughlin.

Orla O'Loughlin, comments "It's so exciting to bring two highlights from our Spring Season back for this year's festival. Both of these productions played to sell-out audiences both at The Traverse and at Òran Mór in Glasgow earlier this year, following their early beginnings as script-in-hand readings. They return as polished gems: this is vibrant and sparkling contemporary writing, by turns witty and profound. It's a real honour to bring Clean and A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity to our festival audience. Both revel in the power and potential of the spoken word and offer themselves as glorious bite-sized breakfast treats."

Douglas Maxwell's, A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity, has been recently nominated for the CATS Award for Best New Play and received rave reviews earlier this year. A riotous explosion of expletives it addresses how we express and process our grief, and we are delighted to welcome back original cast members Joanna Tope and Scott Fletcher, described by Joyce McMillan as "one of the most perfectly tuned double acts I've ever seen on a Scottish stage".

Douglas Maxwell comments "It's an honour to have a play on at the Traverse during the Festival. It's my first time."

Clean, by award-winning poet and playwright Sabrina Mahfouz, and recent recipient of the Sky Arts Futures award, tells the story of three fast-talking, no-nonsense female heroines who rule the roost in the capital's criminal underworld.

Writer Sabrina Mahfouz comments "Clean began last August as a Dream Play, with me trying to write three, fun, feisty female characters for a computer game. Having it back for the Festival at The Traverse this August really does make it a dream play - one which I hope people enjoy for its different view of the criminal underworld and its playful rhythm and characters."

A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity BIOS:

Scott Fletcher (JIM)
Scott trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Theatre credits include: The Dogstone, 365, Calum's Road, Tall Tales for Small People and Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland) and also The Quangle Wangle (Licketyspit/North Edinburgh Arts) Clutter Keeps Company (Birds of Paradise), Peter Pan (Royal Lyceum Theatre) and Playing Houses (Glasgay!).Television and Radio credits include: Taggart, Gary: Tank Commander, Monarch of the Glen and Meryl the Mounted (Radio 4).

Joanna Tope (ANNABEL)
Theatre credits include The Tree of Knowledge (Traverse Theatre Company), Oedipus, A Taste of Honey, Cheri (Citizens Theatre), Death of a Salesman and A Christmas Carol (Royal Lyceum). Television work includes Emmerdale Farm and Monarch of the Glen. Radio credits includeThe Midwife 's Daughter, Book of the Week and many short stories and plays. She was nominated for a New York Drama Desk Award for Douglas Maxwell's one woman play The Promise.

Clean BIOS:

Jade Anouka (CHLOE)
Theatre credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare's Globe/Middle East tour), Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse), Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (NT), Sixty-Six Books (Bush), Hamlet (Globe/European tour), Romeo and Juliet (Bolton Octagon), Wild Horses (Theatre503), Love's Labour's Lost (Globe/US tour), Blood Wedding (Southwark Playhouse), Twelfth Night (York Theatre Royal), The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, The Penelopiad (RSC), Dick Whittington, Golden Boy (Greenwich), Handa's Suprise (Little Angel), UnStoned, Outright Terror Bold & Brilliant (Soho). Film credits include: A Running Jump (dir. Mike Leigh) Television credits include: Doctor Who, Shakespeare Uncovered, Secrets and Words (BBC), Law & Order (ITV).

Emma Dennis-Edwards (ZAINAB)
Emma trained at East 15 acting School where roles included Isabella in Measure for Measure, Dorine in Tartuffe, Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl at The Sam Wanamaker festival at Shakespeare's Globe. Recently chosen as an emerging young actor by Old Vic New Voices she played Joey in Millennium at The Vineyard Theatre, New York. Theatre work also includes Upper Cut (TARA Theatre) Crash (North Wall Arts Centre/ Arcola Theatre), Talent (Soho Theatre), A New World Order (Shoreditch Town Hall, Barbican/Hydrocracker Theatre) Bussin' It (Oval House Theatre). Television and Film includes Trap for Cinderella (Forthcoming Productions), Over the Rainbow (Red Bee Media) and The Naked Poet (Triple Threat Media).

Chloe Massey (KATYA)
Chloe read English at Cambridge before training at LAMDA. Theatre credits include: Glory Dazed (Soho Theatre, Hull Truck, Adelaide Fringe Festival 2013, where it won the Critics' Circle Best in Fringe Award, and Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2012, where it won the Holden Street Theatres Award), Old Vic New Voices: The 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic), Dream Plays (Traverse, in which she appeared as Katya in the first version of Clean), Holiday (Bush Theatre), Calm Down Dear (Pleasance Islington), and Hometown Glory (Royal Exchange). Film includes: Want of a Wife (dir. Justin Hardy), Dig (dir. Duncan Pickstock), and The Square (dir. Duncan Pickstock). Radio includes: Hangdog (BBC Radio 4).

Tickets: £14 Coffee or tea and a breakfast roll are included in the ticket price.

A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity (13, 15, 17, 20, 22 & 24 Aug at 9am)
Press Performance - Tuesday 13 August at 9am

Clean (14, 16, 18, 21, 23 & 25 Aug at 9am)
Press Performance - Wednesday 14 August at 9am

Booking on www.traverse.co.uk / 0044 (0) 131 228 1404.

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