Traverse Theatre Will Host TRAVFEST26 With World Premieres and New Writing
The Edinburgh festival will feature works by Eilidh Loan among Scotland's emerging and acclaimed playwrights.
The Traverse Theatre has announced a major programme for TravFest26, its annual August celebration of new writing, bringing world premieres, landmark co‑productions and urgent contemporary theatre to Edinburgh this summer.
Running from Friday 31 July to Sunday 30 August, TravFest26 brings together work by emerging, mid‑career and internationally acclaimed playwrights, affirming the Traverse's role as Scotland's national new writing company and a place where bold ideas and voices begin, are nurtured and are celebrated.
This year's programme brings together a powerful range of female voices: stories grappling with grief and faith, autonomy and morality, motherhood and ecology, ambition and identity, misogyny and moral courage. Across its two in-house stages, the Traverse presents work rooted in lived experience but resonant with audiences across Scotland and far beyond.
At the centre of the festival are three new Traverse‑led productions that embody the theatre's long-term commitment to, and investment in, new work from Scottish-based artists.
CATHY
CATHY, by Eilidh Loan, is a fierce and funny new play starring Elaine C. Smith, who is returning to the Traverse main stage for the first time in 26 years. Written with Smith in mind for the title role, and marking Loan's second directing role, the play follows a sharp‑tongued widow in the wake of her husband's death, as Christmas approaches and long‑buried truths surface. Darkly comic and deeply humane, from one of Scotland's bold new voices.
AFTER PARTY
AFTER PARTY, a major new play by Morna Young (Sunset Song, Lost At Sea, Never Land), brings large‑scale writing confidently into the festival landscape. Set on the night of a legendary actress's 80th birthday, the play unfolds as family secrets and champagne collide around a decision that will change everything. Directed by Katie Posner and developed with partners Paines Plough and Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, After Party is an unflinching, funny and frank exploration of autonomy, love and a life-defining choice: intimate and epic in equal measure.
SUPPOSING
Completing the trio of Traverse-led work premiere productions is SUPPOSING: by Zinnie Harris, directed by the writer herself. When a curse falls on Sally's house - unexpected, unwanted and impossible to shake - no one will believe her. Rooted in Greek mythology, yet fiercely contemporary, the play explores belief, isolation and the unsettling forces that disrupt ordinary life. Supposing: promises a not-to-be-missed ambitious work by one of Scotland's most established writers in the theatre's most experimental and intimate space, Traverse 2.
Beyond these three flagship productions, TravFest26 presents a diverse programme of premieres and transferring shows that reflect the organisation's international outlook and platforming of bold voices taking risks.
The programme features BOG WITCH (Scottish premiere), the acclaimed autobiographical work by Bryony Kimmings, who returns to the Traverse for the first time in over a decade; THE SINGER (world premiere), radical gig theatre written and directed by Cora Bissett with original music and lyrics by KT Tunstall, exploring Deaf culture, authorship and creative ownership; FOR DOLORES (UK premiere), a blisteringly funny new play written by Eva O'Connor and directed by Jim Culleton presented by Fishamble in association with the Traverse, Lime Tree Theatre, Belltable and Galway International Arts Festival; BADGERS written by Malaika Kegode and directed by Jenny Davies (world premiere), a hybrid theatre piece blending spoken word and live music, exploring the art of letting go and the ethics of true crime; and MRS. STERN WANDERS THE PRUSSIAN STATE LIBRARY written by Jenny Lyn Bader and directed by Ari Laura Kreith (European premiere), a gripping drama inspired by the real‑life arrest of Hannah Arendt in 1933 Berlin.
Alongside the in-house programme, TravFest26 spills out across the city.
LITTLE ANIMALS
Traverse @ The Lyceum Studio is the home of LITTLE ANIMALS (world premiere), a new work written and performed by Paul Ready, star of BBC's Motherland. A frank, funny show about climate anxiety, the stories we tell ourselves and the chance to write a new one.
TRANSMISSION: INTO THE DARK
The award-winning hit of Melbourne and Adelaide Fringes, TRANSMISSION: INTO THE DARK by one step at a time like this (European premiere) comes to Edinburgh this summer. This is an immersive, multimedia night journey reimagined for Edinburgh, with content specifically crafted for the city. Responding to a mysterious invitation, audiences head to a secret location where a voice entices them into the unknown.
A new creative industries focused partnership between Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh College of Art and First Stage Studios presents Sound Cave to an invited audience, which tests innovative audio concepts in the Leith production studio space. And rehearsed readings will offer insights into future full stage works commissioned for the Traverse – more to be announced in June.
As August fills Edinburgh with thousands of shows, TravFest26 offers something distinct: a fully curated, confident programme where new writing meets expert support, scale and belief, and where audiences can follow the careers of artists shaping the future of theatre.
Traverse Festival 2026 runs Friday 31 July to Sunday 30 August at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.
CEO and Executive Producer of Traverse Theatre, Linda Crooks said: “Traverse Festival is our international showcase and most visible expression of what we do all year round – nurturing writers, taking risks, and creating the inspiring work that speaks to the world as it is now. This year's programme brings together artists at different stages of their careers, bringing their different perspectives to our stages, all united by the ambition, the desire to entertain, and a passion to connect with audiences, amidst the backdrop of a refusal to play it safe.”
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