The Traverse Theatre at 50

This exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre.
The Traverse Theatre's origins sprung from a sense of frustration that the undoubted brilliance of the city during August's Edinburgh International Festival was not sustained during the rest of the year. A group of like-minded people conceived of establishing a club which would promote the arts in Scotland's capital all year round. These included American Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, an art teacher and budding arts and exhibitions impresario, and two theatre professionals, actor John Malcolm and actor/ director Terry Lane.
Tom Mitchell, an acquaintance of Haynes and Demarco, had started buying property in Edinburgh, and by the summer of 1962 had purchased a rather decrepit building at 15 James Court on the Lawnmarket. During the 1962 Festival Mitchell allowed the Cambridge University Theatre Company to use 15 James Court and turn it into "The Sphinx" cabaret club for three weeks.
After the Festival, Malcolm approached Mitchell with idea of continuing the use of James Court, as a small theatre. Mitchell agreed and events moved quickly to create a theatre space out of the unlikely building. Joining Malcolm, Lane and Mitchell were the irrepressible Haynes and dynamic Demarco. The building was transformed and a management committee was formed. Terry Lane suggested two banks of seats on either side of a central stage, an arrangement he erroneously thought was called 'traverse'. The actual term is transverse, but from such a misconception the name Traverse Theatre was born. Thus the Traverse Theatre Club opened its doors on a bitterly cold 2 January, 1963, with a double bill of Jean Paul Sartre's Huis Clos and Fernando Arrabal's Orisons.
Fifty years later, the Traverse Theatre is a Scottish institution, world renowned for producing brilliant and ground-breaking theatre. Its name is synonymous with new writing and over the years has helped launch the careers of some of Scotland's most prestigious and best-loved playwrights, including John Byrne, David Greig, David Harrower and Liz Lochhead.
Taking images from the Edinburgh & Scottish Collection's theatre archive and specially commissioned photographs of the Traverse in its 50th year, this exhibition traces the history of the theatre from its early days in Edinburgh's Lawnmarket, via its second location in the Grassmarket, right up to present day production shots taken during the dress rehearsal for 'Arthur Conan Doyle's Appreciation Society'.
View this anniversary exhibition and enjoy a behind the scenes tour of the Traverse through the years.