Previews: Traverse Shows

While You Lie

Adding to the tapestry of this year's hefty, introspective performances, While You Lie promises to be a harrowing journey into the human tendency to explore those secrets which may best be left untouched. Taking a view of honesty as threatening and dangerous, Sam Holcroft's piece has been branded "fearsome" and "brave". Not for the faint of heart, and perhaps best left immediately prior to some comfortingly mediocre stand-up, Traverse veteran Zinnie Harris directs this much-lauded examination of human nature and human lies.

 

My Romantic History

A rom-com at the Traverse? DC Jackson examines how our heart's past affects our future when it comes to all things relationships and sex. Tom and Amy could be any couple: they met after university at an office night out, got serious quickly and now find themselves unsure of how to reconcile their love with memories of their childhood sweethearts. A refreshing addition to Traverse's otherwise rather heavy lineup, My Romantic History may very well be the company's sell-out hit this time around.

 

Flesh and Blood & Fish and Fowl

New York's Barrow Street Theatre is well represented this year with No Child... playing at the Assembly. Across town at the Traverse, Charlotte Ford and Geoff Sobelle's Flesh and Blood & Fish and Fowl combines post-apocalyptic story-telling with taxidermy puppetry. An isolated group of humans survive on as a twisted micro-civilisation in the world's last office building. Darkly comedic, the show will chime with Edinburgh's penchant for all things weird and intelligent.