Night Waking at The Traverse Theatre

Some mothers bake. Some mothers craft. Some mothers quietly research Victorian infanticide while their toddler screams down the house.

Anna Bennett is supposed to be writing a book. Instead, she’s spiralling—sleep-deprived, stretched thin, and more than a little obsessed with the past. Stuck on a remote Scottish island with a husband who cares more about puffins than parenting, she’s just about holding it together. Until she and her son find something buried in the garden.

A darkly funny and deeply unsettling one-woman play, Night Waking is an urgent, razor-sharp meditation on motherhood, colonialism, and the things we leave behind. Adapted by Shireen Mula from Sarah Moss’s novel, it’s a thrilling deep dive into love, exhaustion, and what happens when history refuses to stay buried.