Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 23 Mar

The Traverse Theatre is renowned for promoting new writing in Scotland but this double bill offers audiences the chance to see work that’s being produced in other parts of the UK. Chapel Street by Luke Barnes and Bitch Boxer by Charlotte Josephine are both presented as part of the Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Season, a promising new partnership between two seminal arts institutions.

Chapel Street follows the stories of Joe (Josh Mayes-Cooper)and Kirsty (Nicola Coughlan) desperate to live their night out like it’s their last. They tell their stories in tandem until, in a bar in Chapel St, they collide. Bitch Boxer follows Chloe (Charlotte Josephine) as she trains to qualify for the Olympics. Her motivation is driven by the recent death of her father.

Both productions are energetic and fiery: with minimal set, the actors deliver demanding physical performances to create the world of both plays. Although the pieces are distinctly about young characters they are not necessarily written for a youthful audience; both very subtly evoke nostalgia for that sense of anticipation about the future but present concisely, intelligently and humorously why the problems are endemic of societal structures. As Chloe strives to make her name in boxing – a sport dominated by men – and Joe and Kirsty struggle to create futures in education and employment for themselves, they invert stereotypes and preconceptions of a lazy, uninspired youth. The cost of higher education is rising and the job market is increasingly harder to crack; now theatre is finally addressing the hope and determination of a jilted generation and it’s as strong-willed as the characters it depicts.

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