Traverse Theatre Sets Spring 2015 Season: Catherine-Anne Toupin's RIGHT NOW, Lyceum Youth Theatre & More

The Traverse announces its Spring season today, presenting the best of world-class theatre and new writing to ring in the New Year. The theatre welcomes back Catherine-Anne Toupin with Right Now as a Traverse Theatre Company production, and hits from the Traverse's 2014 Festival Breakfast Plays The Day the Pope Emptied Croy, Fat Alice and Broth return as part of the ever popular A Play, A Pie and A Pint series taking up residence in Traverse 2.

Following an exciting international exchange in Autumn 2014 with Montréal 's Théâtre La Licorne, Right Now by Catherine-Anne Toupin will be presented in preview as a Traverse Theatre production from 5 - 9 May. First performed as a script-in-hand reading as part of New Writing from Quebec, Right Now is a thrilling modern play looking at the unknowns of next door and subverting expectations from the start. The five-night run of preview performances is a chance for audiences to experience new work from international writers.

In March and April, the much acclaimed A Play, A Pie and A Pint series will return to the Traverse for its ninth season in a joint Òran Mór and Traverse presentation. With weekly shows from 17 March - 18 April, the season sees three plays from former Traverse Fifty and Breakfast Play writers Alison Carr, Tim Primrose and Martin McCormick further developed for the Traverse 2 stage.

The Traverse's commitment to supporting and nurturing new talent is sewn through the Spring season, with many events embracing emergent voices. It all kicks off with Traverse Theatre Company's Class Act, two evenings of exciting new work from the Traverse's next generation of playwrights, pupils aged 15 - 18 from five Edinburgh schools (21 - 22 January).

The Lyceum Youth Theatre makes a welcome return in March with Hacktivists by Ben Ockvert, a dark comedy exploring the delicate balance between freedom of information and invasion of privacy (5 - 7 March).

Further exciting development for new writing and new talent comes as The Arches presents the Platform 18 Award Winner O is for Hoolet by Ishbel McFarlane, a one-woman show about the Scots language (23 - 25 April) and Words, Words, Words, the Traverse's scratch platform for new writers, returns in May.

Fringe Festival 2014 hits get extra outings at the Traverse this Spring. Fringe First award-winning Sanitise, devised by Melanie Jordan and Caitlin Skinner, is a playful and original production exploring our most intimate insecurities and fantasies (20 - 21 Feb). curious directive makes its Traverse debut with its Fringe First award-winning production, Pioneer, a poignant tale of the first humans on Mars (2 - 4 April). Following a sell-out UK tour, Mark Thomas returns to the Traverse with his Amnesty International award-winning one-man show Cuckooed, telling the true story of how he discovered a close friend was spying on him for Britain's biggest arms dealer (15 - 18 April).

The manipulate Visual Theatre Festival enters its eighth year, presenting some of the most innovative physical theatre, puppetry and visual animation to be seen anywhere in the UK this year. Highlights include work from Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Italy and the USA as well as artists a little closer to home (31 Jan - 07 Feb). Later in the season, the Imaginate Festival returns to the Traverse to showcase the best new international work for children and young people (11 - 17 May).

Scottish Dance Theatre will bring three pieces of work in Spring starting with YAMA (18 Feb), a piece inspired by pagan and animist rituals in a new full-length form, followed by a double bill of Winter, Again / Dreamers (19 Feb).

Told through flamenco dance, film and live music, The Typist is an exhilarating story of courage, passion and identity telling the story of 'Niños', children evacuated to the UK during the Spanish Civil War (27 - 28 Feb). Coming to the Traverse Theatre as part of a UK Tour, Drywrite and Soho Theatre bring Fleabag, the tale of a female on a quest for rediscovery (26 - 28 Feb).

Award-winning comedian and frequent guest on The News Quiz and QI, Susan Calman comes to the Traverse on her first UK tour, Lady Like, a show about being older, wiser and liking yourself whatever anyone else might say (4 Mar). 2013 Festival hit from acclaimed director David Leddy Long Live The Little Knife, a dynamic and uplifting piece about forgery, castration and blind drunkenness, returns to the Traverse for one night only (7 Mar).

Other highlights of the Spring season include Jamie Wood with Beating McEnroe (12 - 14 Mar), a solo show about boyhood heroes, tennis and John McEnroe, while Lung Ha's Theatre Company and Drake Music Scotland present a dramatic re-working of the classic story, The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde, by Scottish playwright Morna Pearson (19 - 21 Mar).

Dundee Rep, Derby Theatre and Graeae present a radical new take on Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca from writer David Ireland, refuelling a tale of searing lust, love and rebellion with a contemporary twist (8 - 11 Apr). Originally premiered at the Traverse Theatre in 1988, Borderline Theatre Company and Hirtle revive Sue Glover's The Straw Chair, a captivating play about liberty and love both lost and found in unlikely settings (23 - 25 Apr).

Transporting Hans Christian Anderson's haunting fable, Mermaid by writer and director Polly Teale uses the dark, mythic power of fairy tales in a contemporary and spellbinding production (6 - 9 May). In a new showcase for final year HND acting students, Performing Arts Studio Scotland (PASS) and Edinburgh College presents three new short pieces in PASS Out (22 - 23 May).

Some familiar faces round off the Spring season, as National Theatre of Scotland joins forces with Manchester's Contact to present Rites (26 - 30 May), a powerful new production exploring the deep-rooted cultural practice of Female Genital Mutilation created by Cora Bissett and Yusra Warsama. Critically acclaimed Chris Goode & Company close the season with STAND, presenting real stories of courage and conscience from ordinary people who stood up for something or someone they believed in (4 - 6 June).

Outwith the theatre spaces, the Traverse welcomes Soundhouse in a new musical residency, bringing a host of home-grown and international talent to the Traverse Bar Café on Monday nights throughout the season (starts 2 Feb). The Traverse Bar Café will also be the venue for a special Valentine's Day evening of food, drink and live swing music with the Bevvy Sisters and The Loveboat Supper Club Band.

Booking for all shows on www.traverse.co.uk or 0131 228 1404.

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