Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre has revealed its December programme of shows, films and events at their all year-round digital festival venue, Traverse 3.

New events include revelatory play from Happenings: Until the Flood with Dael Orlandersmith available from 3 December, a theatrical capture premiere of Gary McNair’s A Gambler’s Guide to Dying on 17 December followed by an exclusive Q&A with the writer (available until 27 January 2021), and new episodes of The Traverse Podcast with Jess Brough, Harry Josephine Giles and Bea Webster.

Shows returning include digital play Shielders by Matilda Ibini and 2020 Breakfast Plays: Second Helping, featuring plays by Jamie Cowan, Rebecca Martin, Amy Rhianne Milton, Uma Nada-Rajah and Conor O’Loughlin. These will all be available from 3 December - 31 January 2021.

Traverse Executive Producer, Linda Crooks, says: “As we near the closure of the most challenging of years for us all, we felt it important to reflect on the times and what we know within the programme.  Since the onset of the crisis, we at the Traverse were determined to lean into the challenges, which undeniably have been tough.  Undaunted, we have sought to create and deliver an inventive and international programme of new and reimagined stories in whatever way we could – with Traverse 3 being the torchlight, our virtual alternative.  

“And now we seek to bring a Christmas cornucopia for our audiences, brimming with real(ish) and fantastical stories of hope, joy, triumph over adversity - and a dollop of reckoning.  

“We have attempted to highlight and explore what connects us to each other and to our communities, makes us strong and resilient, empowers and disempowers, embrace humility and ultimately brings us to give a damn.  

“To this end, we invited our Associate Artist, Glasgow’s Gary McNair, to work with us to reimagine for Traverse 3 his hit show A Gambler’s Guide to Dying - a timely, heartwarming story about the relationship between fortune and fate and betting on what none of us can control. And from New York the titanic writer and performer Dael Orlandersmith gifts us her astonishing, gripping drama Until the Flood, the ugly truth about racism in the United States and beyond. 

“At the moment we can’t control our theatre spaces but along with a range of exceptional creatives from Scotland and beyond, we can bring you brilliant stories and give you something to mull over.”

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