Lyceum Youth Theatre presents Fugee. Exposed to a life without compromise, young asylum seekers in the UK fight to stay in control of their lives past, present and future... Turn him on his side, turn him on his side. There’s stuff coming from his mouth, bro. When 14 year old Kojo tumbles into the UK “system” with no official papers, and no words in English, he is housed in a refuge for under-age asylum seekers. With new friends Cheung and Ara by his side he begins to reconcile his past and find pleasure in the present. But when the system starts to break down... Fugee expresses the reality of slipping through the net in LyT’s trademark contemporary sound and image driven style. Fugee is presented as part of The Royal National Theatre New Connections, supported by Bank of America. LyT is the Youth Theatre of the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company. There is a 2.30pm matinee on the Saturday. (back to top)

Hofesh Shechter is one of the UK’s most talked about young choreographers delivering intensely physical, breathtaking performance that immediately connects with audiences. Uprising is an exciting work for seven forceful male dancers who wash the stage with a wild drive of hope in the shadow of despair. A highly engaging and complex piece of choreography with a powerful pounding soundtrack, Uprising touches audiences with an assault on the senses. Originally seen at the Traverse in Oct 2006, Uprising makes a welcome return as part of this double bill. In Your Rooms was commissioned jointly by The Place, the Southbank Centre and Sadlers Wells. It is Shechter’s most accomplished work to date which has thrilled audiences with its anger and anguish, love and loneliness, pain and protest, fear and frustration; there isn’t a nerve untouched. (back to top)

Everyone’s got to believe in something. Something that makes all the rubbish worthwhile... Eliot is 18 and under severe stress. There’s no girlfriend in sight, his best mate has stopped swearing and his pregnant step-mum is even more stressed than he is.... And then, having got the call from outer space to say that The Mother Ship is leaving and coming to take him home, his disabled brother, Gerry, disappears. And it’s all Eliot’s fault. A riotous chase kicks off involving a love-lorn lifeguard, a policeman who believes in the existence of Klingons and a car that can turn into a boat. The Mother Ship is a fantastically funny new adventure about what it means to be young, to be different, or just to believe in something beyond the ordinary. Douglas Maxwell’s previous plays include Helmet, the multi-award winning Decky Does A Bronco and Mancub. (back to top)

Lazzi’s production of the Oresteia is an elegantly classical yet astonishingly real rendition of Aeschylus’ tragic trilogy: Agamemnon, The Choephorae and The Furies dating from 458 BC. In this adaptation, the hero, Orestes, appears before us, his judges, to answer to the crime of matricide. Sandy Grierson (Best Actor Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland 2007) plays Orestes in an intense solo portrayal that tests the limits of physical performance as it plunges the audience directly into Aeschylus’ timeless themes of revenge, torture, guilt and justice. Robert Potter’s 1886 translation has been pared down to an absolute minimum. Staged with extreme simplicity, with a haunting soundtrack by Davey Anderson (Rupture; Black Watch; Snuff), this is a visually stunning and challenging piece of theatre that sears its place in the mind. Devised by David W W Johnstone and Sandy Grierson, Lazzi’s Oresteia was originally produced through the Nucleus programme at Cumbernauld Theatre. Lazzi is dedicated to bold experimentation and a highly improvisational style. The company has garnered a reputation for innovation with its striking and original theatre works including Witkacy Idiota (2005) and Aurora Borealis (2007). (back to top)

The brochure promises beautiful scenery, wonderful people, stress-free living and even barbeques. No wonder the MacScott family are prepared to swap Scotland for a one-way ticket to The Land of Delightful Things, especially when Mr Big Fish wants to shut them up - for good. Pursued all the way, the MacScotts travel by land and sea to reach their promised land, their utopia, their very own shangri-la. What will they find if they get there? Will the gap between expectation and reality prove too big for them or can happiness be found in the most surprising places? Watch and enjoy as this modern odyssey is related by Edinburgh’s fabulous Lung Ha’s Theatre Company and its cast of 40 performers. The production will feature original music performed live on stage, created through a partnership with Drake Music Scotland. Lung Ha’s Theatre Company would like to thank the Scottish Arts Council, the City of Edinburgh Council and Midlothian Council for their ongoing support. Audio Described performances (Thursday & Saturday). Sign Language interpreted performances (Thursday & Saturday). Touch Tour (Saturday (6.45pm touch tour/7.30pm performance)). The Thursday performance starts at 2pm. (back to top)

The latest new show from Licketyspit, the makers of Molly Whuppie, Wee Witches, Magic Spaghetti, Quangle Wangle and Green Whale for 3 - 12 year olds and everyone else! Three people from different places. Three people holding up the same roof and needing to find the answer to a question... We meet in the playground but where have we come from and where are we going? To the moon? To the stars even? And what will we find? Dragons in the dustbin? Fishes on the roof? An exuberant, highly physical show for children and families, with bagpipes, drumming, dancing, games and songs, Heelie-go-Leerie will celebrate the riches of childhood and the energy, wit and tenacity of children – no matter what! Performance times - Friday 5pm, Saturday & Sunday 11am & 3pm. (back to top)

The Arches Award for Stage Directors is completely unique in the UK and was created by the Arches to offer emergent directors the opportunity to stage a fully supported and professional production. It is presented in association with National Theatre of Scotland & Traverse Theatre. This year’s winners are Sixteen by Rob Drummond and The Severed Head of Comrade Bukhari by Daljinder Singh which will be presented as a double bill at the Traverse: Sixteen by Rob Drummond - At 16, we are lawfully permitted to have sex. In this sinister piece, Sara Marshall, 15 years, 364 days, 23 hours and 15 minutes old, intends to take full advantage. She is waiting as her parents play awkward host to her boyfriend, 30-something Tony, before he climbs the 19 stairs to Sara’s room and waits for the clock to chime. Rob Drummond adapted Peer Gynt for the Edinburgh Fringe and directed his own work Lifesaving at the New Writing New Worlds Festival. The Severed Head of Comrade Bukhari by Daljinder Singh - Comrade Bukhari must die. His crime is so dire that he cannot escape what fate has in store for him. The hottest night of the year, an alley way, a disused building and a jukebox with a mind of its own set the scene for a dark, chilling and extraordinary event. Daljinder Singh directed Fewer Emergencies for Ankur Productions and The Penal Colony for Tara Arts. She has previously worked with Tag Theatre Company, National Theatre of Scotland, Talawa Theatre Company, Contact Theatre and the West Yorkshire Playhouse. (back to top)

The Traverse is delighted to welcome back John Byrne with the long awaited fourth part of The Slab Boys story. 30 years on from when we last met him and Lucille in The Garden of Remembrance, Phil McCann faces the New Millennium with fortitude and good humour. The leading arts correspondent of the day is on her way to the far north to record a radio profile which Phil’s confident will relaunch his career as a painter and establish him once and for all as a colossus of contemporary Caledonian culture... The only fly in the ointment is his new and much younger partner, Didi, a video-artist of some renown, who has just been added to the shortlist of nominees for the Turner Prize. Unfortunately, there are other flies buzzing about this particular ointment... Nova Scotia is the triumphant next instalment of one of the best loved stories in Scottish theatre. Find out what happens when the Slab Boys hit the 21st century! John Byrne was born in Paisley in 1940. He worked as a ‘slab boy’ at A F Stoddard, the carpet manufacturers, before going to Glasgow School of Art. He became a full time painter in 1968 following his first London exhibition. John is also a distinguished theatre designer and playwright. Other plays include The Slab Boys, Cuttin’ a Rug, Still Life, Writer’s Cramp, Normal Service, Cara Coco and Colquhoun and Macbryde. On television he is best known for his BAFTA Award-winning seriesTutti Frutti (recently adapted for the stage by National Theatre of Scotland). He has also designed for the Traverse Theatre, 7:84, Hampstead Theatre, Bush Theatre and Scottish Opera. Performance times - 8pm. There are Saturday matinees on May 10th, 17th & 24 May at 2.30pm. There are 5pm Sunday evening showings on May 4th, 11th and 18th. (back to top)

Queen Margaret University’s 3rd year directors have leapt into the dark of the Traverse archive and have emerged with gems from both established writers and unknowns, some seen before, some not. They are joined by trainee actors from Telford College to bring them to the stage. The performance will include excerpts from Wit by Margaret Edson, Europe by David Greig, One Day All This Will Come to Nothing by Catherine Grosvenor, Alexander Salamander (or The Story of a Teenage Pyromaniac) by Iain F Macleod and 15 Minutes by Ali Smith. Poetic, whimsical, emotional and absurd, it promises to be a feast of recent Scottish writing chosen and interpreted by emerging Scottish theatre artists. (back to top)

Click here to see the full line up for this year's festival. (back to top)

How the hell am I supposed to get heads and bodies for the Poles and the Bunker if I don’t kill things? Meet Frank - just a normal 16-year-old serial killer living in isolation on a small island just off the North coast. His everyday life is, well, unconventional. Frank’s mother has gone, his elder brother Eric is confined to a secure hospital and his father measures his own eccentricities using the imperial scale. But when Eric escapes, Frank has to make ready for his dangerous brother’s impending return... a return that explodes the family’s dark past and changes young Frank, forever. The Wasp Factory is Iain Banks’ celebrated first novel and a work of both fascinating and horrifying imagination. First published in 1984, the now cult novel caused an immediate storm, establishing Banks’ reputation as one of Scotland’s most original must-read authors. It has been adapted for the stage by Malcolm Sutherland. (back to top)

Your chance to see leading actors perform a selection of new plays in one-off previews. The latest Traverse Theatre commission by Gregory Burke (Gagarin Way; Black Watch) will be shown alongside leading plays from the UK, Japan and Canada. Some of the world’s most exciting playwrights show a glimpse at their latest plays workshopped by leading directors and actors. The readings and times are as follows: The Shape of a Girl by Joan MacLeod - Wed 11 June (7.30pm). David Hume’s Kilt by Brian Logan - Thu 12 June (7.30pm) directed by Dominic Hill. Hogmanay (Uchiya-Matsuri) by Fukatsu Shigefumi - Sat 14 June (2.30pm) directed by Lorne Campbell. Hoors by Gregory Burke - Sat 14 June (7.30pm) directed by Roxana Silbert. (back to top)

Pestilence, decadence, grotesquery... The David Hughes Company and Al Seed have collaborated to create a contemporary and visually shocking interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale The Masque of the Red Death. Barricaded in in his opulent abbey-mansion, a prince entertains a party of revellers. Outside the world is on the verge of apocalypse, the land is plague-ridden and dying, but as long as the wine flows and the musicians play, what reason have they to care? Weaving a multitude of dance traditions, improvisation and extreme physical theatre, this collaboration is a true horror show for the stage and a distorted reflection of the culture we inhabit. (back to top)

Following our successful collaboration in 2007, Edinburgh International Film Festival is delighted to once again be joining forces with the Traverse to present four special events during EIFF 2008. Newly positioned in a June slot, EIFF will have an unprecedented opportunity to assert its status among the world’s leading film events and the UK’s most significant and valued cultural institutions. The four collaborations with the Traverse will focus on new writing and performance with full details and special guests being announced on Wednesday 7 May. Explore the wealth of events that the Edinburgh International Film Festival has to offer by subscribing at www.edfilmfest.org.uk to receive the latest email updates or send an email to brochure@edfilmfest.org.uk to be included on the brochure mailing list. (back to top)

A classic of modern music-theatre, Peter Maxwell Davies’