Three plays by former IASH Fellows burst on to Edinburgh stages in the coming weeks.
Variant by Peter Arnott: Traverse Theatre https://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/event/a-play-a-pie-a-pint-variant-spring-23
28 March - 1 April
A man and a woman are on stage and there’s something going on between them…but what is it? At first, you think it’s one thing. Then it’s something else. Maybe a flirtation, a thriller, a crime story? Maybe it’s all happened before? Maybe it’s a joke? Maybe it’s just a Variant… The play was commissioned by IASH in 2017, and a rehearsed reading was presented in June 2018 at St Cecilia's Hall. Peter Arnott was the IASH/Traverse Creative Fellow in 2017.
Castle Lennox by Linda McLean: Lyceum Theatre https://lyceum.org.uk/whats-on/production/castle-lennox1
30 March - 1 April
It's 1965. Annis, a young autistic woman, is sent by her stepmother to live as a patient at Castle Lennox, where the rules of the outside world do not apply. Desperate to escape, she very quickly lands herself in trouble and makes an enemy of the nurse in charge. Feeling lost and alone, she is befriended by fellow residents who show her another Castle Lennox, a world of colour and song, one that is a welcome relief from the monotonous regime of pills and porridge. But Annis can’t help wanting to be free. Linda McLean was the IASH/Traverse Creative Fellow in 2011.
The Multiverse Is Gay! by Lewis Hetherington: Lyceum Theatre https://lyceum.org.uk/whats-on/production/the-multiverse-is-gay
11-15 April
It’s the last day of school and a raggle-taggle group of friends are bunking off. They break into some fancy private gardens to have a party. In a world that feels like it’s falling apart, they are trying to hold themselves together. Others cast them as the outsiders; the geeks, the queer kids, the school dropouts. But they know they are a community, a family. Except for Amber, who always feels slightly on the outside of things. When Amber accidentally stumbles through a portal that launches them in flight across the Multiverse, they meet an eclectic mix of characters who force them to question who they are and who they want to become. As they tumble through time and space, will they finally find somewhere they belong? Lewis Hetherington was the IASH/Traverse Creative Fellow in 2019.