David Greig & David Harrower Double Bill Set for August at the Traverse

The Traverse will bring together two of Scotland's mos famous playwrights, David Greig and David Harrower, in a special double bill as one of the Theatre's flagship shows for its 2012 Festival Programme this August. Presented back to back, David Greig's The Letter of Last Resort and David Harrower's Good With People take us from London to Helensburgh, tracing the paths of personal and political destruction in two highly-charged stories.

The Letter of Last Resort by David Greig

Set in Whitehall after the next election, The Letter of Last Resort finds the newly elected Prime Minister struggling to write a letter to be opened only if Britain is devastated by a Nuclear strike. In an unimaginable future where the only safe place on the planet is under the sea in a submarine, what should her orders be? Directed by Nicolas Kent The Letter of Last Resort stars Simon Chandler (Silk, The King's Speech, The Iron Lady) and Belinda Lang (2Point4 Children, Ladies in Lavender) and was a highlight of the Tricycle Theatre's production THE BOMB – a partial history, staged earlier this year.

Starring Simon Chandler and Belinda Lang, the show will be directed by Nicolas Kent. The creative team will be Designer Polly Sullivan, Video Designer Douglas O'Connell, Lighting Designer Howard Harrison, Sound Designer Tom Lishman and Assistant Director Tara Robinson.

David Greig's work for the Traverse includes Midsummer [a play with songs], Gordon Brown, a Life in Theatre, Outlying Islands, Europe and Damascus. His plays The Monster in the Hall (Citizens Theatre) and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (National Theatre of Scotland) were both staged as part of the Traverse Theatre's 2011 Festival programme. His adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is set for a major West End production in summer 2013, directed by Sam Mendes.

Simon Chandler appeared in the original production of The Letter of Last Resort earlier this year at the Tricycle, and last year in Women, Power, Politics. Other theatre includes: Persuasion (Salisbury Playhouse); Cause Cèlébre (Old Vic); All Mouth (Menier Chocolate Factory); One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Democracy, The Clandestine Marriage, Man of the Moment (West End); King Lear (RSC) and Invisible Friends (National Theatre). Simon's television credits include: Silk, Vera, Land Girls, The Shadow Line, House of Anubis, Identity, Place of Execution, Judge John Deed, Midsomer Murders, The Taming of the Shrew, Murder Rooms. Film work includes: The Iron Lady, The King's Speech, Penelope, The Rising,

Belinda Lang is and actress, director and producer. Along with The Letter of Last Resort, she has appeared in Roll With the Punches for the Tricycle. Other theatre includes: Ladies in Lavender (Royal & Derngate); The Killing of Sister George (Arts Theatre); East is East (Birmingham Rep); Liberty (Globe Theatre); Ring Around the Moon (Playhouse); Forgotten Voices (Riverside Studios and Edinburgh Festival); Hay Fever (Haymarket Theatre); What the Butler Saw (Hampstead Theatre and Criterion); The Secret Rapture (Lyric Theatre); Life x 3 (Savoy Theatre); Things We Do For Love (Duchess); Dead Funny (Savoy); Mrs Klein (Apollo); The Dark River, Three Sisters Two (Orange Tree); My Boy Jack (Hampstead Theatre); Lulu (Almeida); Tales From Hollywood, Antigone, The Women (National Theatre). Belinda formed Haig Lang Productions in 2004, who produced national tours of My Boy Jack and Private Lives. Television includes: 2Point4 Children, The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Second Thoughts, Dear John, The Bretts, Bust, Justice in Wonderland. Directing work includes: Present Laughter and The Reluctant Debutante, both national tours.

Good With People by David Harrower

Good With People takes us to Helensburgh, west Scotland, a once thriving holiday resort now home to Britain's nuclear defence programme. Returning to a place he's been trying to avoid, Evan finds Helen working at the Seaview Hotel. From the same place but worlds apart, their evening fizzes and fuses. Will there be fallout? Directed by George Perrin and starring Blythe Duff (Taggart, Just Checking, Beautiful Burnout), the play started life at Òran Mór and Paines Plough's 2010 season of a Play, a Pie and a Pint.

Blythe Duff will star, directed by George Perrin.

David Harrower's play Knives in Hens was first staged by the Traverse in 1995 and has since become one of the most performEd Scottish plays of all time. Kill The Old Torture Their Young, also for the Traverse, won the Meyer Whitworth Prize in 1999 and his play Blackbird was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2007. A Slow Air (Tron Theatre) was a hit of the Traverse Theatre's 2011 Festival programme and has gone on to tour nationally.

Blythe Duff is an actress and producer. She formed Datum Point Productions in 2010, co-producers of Good With People and producers of Just Checking, which Blythe starred in last year. Theatre work includes: Be Near Me (National Theatre of Scotland and Donmar Warehouse) and Beautiful Burnout (National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly). Blythe has worked with The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Citizens Theatre, Volcanic Productions NZ, Scottish Opera and English National Opera. She has narrated poems for The Complete Works of Robert Burns for the BBC, performed on the concert platform in Sound Bites for Scottish Opera, The Burns Bicentennial Concert, The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra with the BBC Symphony Orchestra broadcast live on Radio 3, narrated the audio book 44 Scotland Street for Time Warner and most recently recorded Hansel and Gretel with the Scottish Opera Orchestra. Blythe's television credits range from All Star Family Fortunes to This Morning and from Song Of Praise to Ready Steady Cook. She is undoubtably best known as Jackie Reid in ITV 1's Taggart.

Running at 1 hour 20 mins (approx) in Traverse One, the show runs Sun 5 – Sun 26 August with a preview on Saturday the 4th of August. Tickets range from £6-20 from www.traverse.co.uk / 0131 228 1404.

Photo Credit: Laurence Winram.

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