Traverse Theatre Announces Autumn Winter Programme - MOUTHPIECE, BLACK BEAUTY, and More

Christmas welcomes the latest full-length play from Kieran Hurley - Mouthpiece (5-22 Dec), produced in association with HighTide - an unexpected, darkly comic and at times shocking story of two unlikely lives intertwined. After encountering each other on Salisbury Crags one evening, Libby and Declan form an uneasy friendship, complicated by class and culture - Libby spots an opportunity to put her writing career back on track, and tell a story that really matters. Mouthpiece takes a deeply personal look at the different Edinburghs which often exist in ignorance of one another, and examines whether it's possible to tell someone else's story without exploiting them. Orla O'Loughlin directs, marking her final production as Artistic Director before taking on the role of Vice-Principal and Director of Drama at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

The second Traverse Theatre production is Arctic Oil (9-20 Oct), which tells the story of a mother/daughter relationship pushed to breaking point. Set on a small island in the North Sea surrounded by oil rich sea beds, daughter Ella fights to protect her young son from the effects of fossil fuel on climate change. Meanwhile, her mother, Margret, frightened by the extremity of Ella's activism, goes to overly-protective lengths to keep her daughter (and grandson) close. Written by IASH/Traverse Creative Fellow 2015 winner Clare Duffy and directed by Traverse Associate Director Gareth Nicholls, Arctic Oil uses a fractured island community setting to get under the skin of what climate change could make us do to the people we love.

More urgent subject matters are brought to the stage with Schooled (23 & 24 Nov) by Wildfire Theatre's Pauline Lockhart - a daring verbatim work-in-progress using individual experiences of pupils and teachers, past and present, to shine a spotlight on Scotland's education system.

The Traverse will also host a series of 'First Look' readings - presenting three brand new Traverse-commissioned plays in front of an audience for the first time, performed script-in-hand by professional actors: Some Of Us Are Brave (25 Oct) by Adura Onashile, Thole (26 Oct) by Owen Whitelaw, and Absent (27 Oct) by Stef Smith. They offer an exclusive first taste of the plays set to be produced by the Traverse in the next couple of years. Each performance will be followed by a discussion, giving the opportunity to audiences to ask questions, give feedback and be part of a play's development process. Orla O'Loughlin will direct Some Of Us Are Brave and Absent, and Gareth Nicholls will direct Thole.

Elsewhere, the CATS award-winning Black Beauty (29 & 30 Nov), produced with Red Bridge Arts, returns home for two performances only, following an acclaimed run in New York City. This award-winning re-telling offers fun and adventure for fans of the book, classic TV show and those brand new to the tale, blending storytelling, music and puppetry.

A Play, A Pie and A Pint, Òran Mór (presented by Traverse Theatre) unveil a series of new plays to light up your lunchtime, featuring Outside In (11-15 Sep) by Chris Grady, Tap Dancing with Jean-Paul Sartre (18-22 Sep) by James Runcie, The Lottery (25-29 Sep) by Donna Franceschild, Tipping the Hat (2-6 Oct) by John Bett, It Wisnae Me (9-13 Oct) by Alan Bissett, and The Last Picture Show (16-20 Oct) by Morag Fullarton. Ticket price includes a pie and a drink.

Now in its 27th year, Traverse flagship education project Class Act returns for 2018, challenging senior pupils from schools across Edinburgh to become playwrights, creating brand new scripts to be premiered on the Traverse stage (21 & 22 Nov). We'll present the work of pupils from Craigroyston Community High School, Currie Community High School, Firrhill High School and Leith Academy - this year delivering longer-term engagement with further theatre skills workshops for the schools after the final performances.

Off-stage, this season's Open Auditions (2 & 3 Nov) will seek to widen our knowledge of the fresh acting talent out there - with 18 slots per day, open to actors we've never worked with before and from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible. We'll also host a series of Open Booth Sessions (14 Sep, 12 Oct, 9 Nov & 7 Dec), where, over four Fridays, our Artistic Team will grab a booth in the Traverse Bar and meet with artists, theatre-makers and creators who have never worked with us before.

Sitting alongside Mouthpiece over Christmas, Traverse 1 will welcome Jo Clifford's legendary play The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven (13-16 & 19-22 Dec), in which Jesus returns to Earth as a trans women - and she has a lot to say. It comes to the Traverse for the first time, almost ten years after its controversial premiere, and off the back of continued touring of South America - where it was at the epicentre of an anti-censorship and human rights movement. Completing the Christmas season, and back by popular demand, is the A Play, A Pie and A Pint favourite McGonagall's Chronicles (Which Will Be Remembered For A Very Long Time) (5-8, 11 & 12 and 14 & 15 Dec). Written and performed by Gary McNair with a live score from Simon Liddell, this is the biography of the Dundonian poet Sir William Topaz McGonagall, considered by history as the world's worst poet. It's written suitably in 'almost rhyming verse' and will be served up with mince pies and mulled wine, because, Christmas.

World premiere-wise, the season opens with Xana Marwick's NESTS (7 & 8 Sep), a surreal tale for Scotland's Year of Young People that questions how our society treats the young and vulnerable. It's followed by Muireann Kelly and Frances Poet's Scotties (27-29 Sep) - a powerful new play that takes the real life Kirkintilloch tragedy of 1937 as its starting point, and celebrates the shared linguistic, musical and cultural traditions of Scotland and Ireland, supported by the national theatre companies of both countries. The last of this season's visiting company world premieres is Sylvia Dow's Stuff (6 & 7 Nov), a tender story told with humour of our propensity to hoard memories, emotions, 'stuff' - exploring our attachment to things, and our need for attachment to each other.

Elsewhere, we have the Scottish premiere of Two Destination Language's Manpower (26 & 27 Sep) by Alister Lownie, a politically complex commentary on Britain's working men over the last 40 years - since Britain voted to be part of the EU - as a British man and an Eastern European woman share the stage. Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting winner Anna Jordan's new play The Unreturning (24-27 Oct) also has its Scottish premiere, exploring the profound effect that war has on young lives. Directed by Frantic Assembly's Associate Director Neil Bettles, it features Frantic Assembly's celebrated physicality.

Plus, the Citizens Theatre's brutal and intense production The Macbeths (16-18 Oct & 20 Oct) - first performed there in 2017 - makes its way across the Central Belt to tell the Bard's favourite story in a powerfully concentrated 70-minutes; while Rona Munro's tense, passionate play The Last Witch (7-10 Nov) - an original Traverse Theatre Company and Edinburgh International Festival co-commission - is brought vividly to life in a thrilling new revival by Pitlochry Festival Theatre in association with Firebrand Theatre Company.

Chrysalis (15-17 Sep) also returns for 2018 for three days of bold and engaging work by young companies - taking in theatre productions, workshops and pop-up events, while Soundhouse present another programme of stellar Monday evening (and the occasional Sunday) music showcases in the Traverse café bar.

Orla O'Loughlin, Traverse Theatre's Artistic Director, says:

'I am delighted to be directing the premiere of Kieran Hurley's compelling Mouthpiece in my final season as the Traverse Artistic Director. I am especially proud that this powerful new play for Edinburgh sits amidst such an exciting programme of new Traverse work, including Clare Duffy's timely Arctic Oil, our series of thrilling 'First Look' play readings, Pauline Lockhart's powerful Schooled and the triumphant return of Black Beauty to the stable. As always it's an honour to welcome the very best of Scottish talent to our stages and I'm especially looking forward to celebrating Christmas with both Jo Clifford's majestic The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, and Gary McNair's glorious McGonagall's Chronicles (Which Will Be Remembered For A Very Long Time). I can think of no better way to end my tenure than in the company of so many bold, bright and downright brilliant associates, artists and companies.'

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