Experimental theatre live in HD from the Edinburgh Festival to the big screen via satellite

Monday 23 August, 19.00

A one-off live broadcast of the Traverse Theatre’s Impossible Things Before Breakfast, five specially commissioned new plays by the company's talented writers Marina Carr, David Eldridge, Linda McLean, Simon Stephens and Enda Walsh.

The plays will have been formulated and rehearsed over the previous week of the Festival, and each will have had just one script-in-hand performance before being broadcast to our screens.

Tickets are now on sale: £10, £9 Members

About Traverse Theatre

The Traverse Theatre is Scotland’s new writing theatre. From its conception in 1963, it has embraced a spirit of innovation and risk-taking that launched the careers of many of Scotland’s best-known writers, including John Byrne, David Greig, David Harrower and Liz Lochhead. Find out more

Traverse Live!

This live transmission will give audiences around the country a uniquely visceral connection with the actors and the scripts. Traverse Artistic Director Dominic Hill says: “This exciting project celebrates the fact that people are accessing theatre in new ways, and also de-mystifies the process of bringing a script to life. We are capturing the essence of what we do at the Traverse, and are delighted to bring the work of these five exceptional writers to a much wider audience through the live broadcast on 23 August. Traverse Live!  will be like a big window behind the scenes, concentrating on the actor and the script. It will give people across the UK the chance to connect with the Traverse studio experience, and discover something brand new at the Festival.”

About the Plays

T5
by Simon Stephens
directed by Dominic Hill

When Cassie's mum watches a teenage boy being stabbed to death in the park near her house nobody can believe how she responds. T5 is her road trip below the heart of London. It takes her on a darkly magical flight out of the edges of the 21st Century.

Quartet
by Marina Carr
directed by Vicky Featherstone

One man's relationship with his wife, his mistress and his lover over thirty years.

This is Water
by Linda McLean
directed by Stewart Laing

Eighteen people pass through an ill-lit wooden house on the side of a mountain and find themselves interrogated. "We have no control over most things; we are totally powerless over … other people, um … events … um … we have no idea what’s going to happen on a daily basis so I think that we mostly live in an illusion that we, um, have certainty … when we don’t."

My Friend Duplicity
by Enda Walsh
directed by Vicky Featherstone

At 10 minutes past 9, a young woman and older man enter a house, walk up two flights of stairs and enter a small box bedroom with a desk and two seats especially for them. Out of nothing they make something. Or just anything. Anything at all.

All Is Vanity (Or With Apologies to Nathalie Sarraute)
by David Eldridge
directed by Zinnie Harris

Roy's invited Richard and his wife over, and in the garden of their Kent manse with bees buzzing harmlessly, nothing seems amiss. But Roy's wife, Ursula, isn't herself and all is not well. A strange short play on the fragility of existence.