“That sounds like a manifesto to me” - Joyce McMillan on what the new creative team at the Traverse could mean for the future of theatre in Scotland

WHEN the Traverse changes, Scottish theatre changes; the relationship, built up over the last half century, is as strong and symbiotic as that. From the surge of early-1960s radicalism and sexual permissiveness that marked its opening years under Terry Lane and Jim Haynes, through the decisive shift of focus to Scottish playwriting under Chris Parr in the late Seventies, to the golden age of new writing spearheaded by David Harrower, David Greig, Gregory Burke and Nicola McCartney during Philip Howard’s artistic directorship of 1996-2007, the Traverse has arguably done a huge share of the heavy lifting in building the foundations of a 21st century Scottish theatre that has its own repertoire, its own agenda, and its own place in Scotland’s national life.