There are plenty of people working in theatre who would claim that the business of theatre criticism is dirty work. But as we critics stretch out in our aisle seats like pampered cats, it's often hard to see how this is the case. Still, if there is one day of the year when it feels a bit like going down a coal mine, it is today: most of the UK's critics are descending into the bowels of Edinburgh's Traverse to see five shows. There would have been six, but the press performance of Daniel Kitson's The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church has been delayed until tomorrow night.
I always rather enjoy this occasion as it marks the real start of the Edinburgh festival, but I sometimes wonder if it does the work any favours. These early Traverse openings are guaranteed press coverage, but the lack of space around each piece doesn't let the work breathe – or allow critics time for honest reflection. I often see six or more Edinburgh shows in a day but they will be scattered around the city; it is on the walk between venues that I really absorb and consider what I've just seen.
The relationship between the Traverse and the festival is clearly something that the theatre's artistic director Dominic Hill has been reflecting on. This year's programme is distinctly different from that of his predecessor, Philip Howard, most particularly in the way that new Scottish writing is not absolutely central to the programme. Moreover, it includes a number of shows already seen in London or elsewhere. The programme kicked off this morning with Simon Stephens's heartbreaking Sea Wall, first seen in the Bush's Broken Space season last year.
When I first saw the programme, I speculated that it reflected a lack of depth and breadth in Scottish new writing, but having spoken to Hill, I reckon that I was probably way off track. Hill feels no need to produce work that is "doggedly Scottish" and thinks that it is good for Scottish writers and audiences to be exposed to a far wider range of voices and work. As he says: "Endless plays set in Highlands bothies or bedsits in Leith just don't interest me. I'm interested in a less parochial outlook and saying to Scottish writers we can cover the big things, the big issues."
Hill's own production of Rona Munro's The Last Witch will be at the Royal Lyceum in a co-production with the international festival, suggesting that the Traverse can straddle both the international and the fringe festivals.
I think Hill has a point in suggesting that some new work may not be best served by a festival environment. New plays are not always well-suited to tight turnaround times. Then there is the timing of the performances: not everyone wants to consider weighty moral issues, such as those raised in Zinnie Harris's Fall, at 10am.
The main point here is that while the Traverse festival season feels like an opportunity to catch up on Scottish writing for those critics coming from south of the border, the theatre doesn't exist for just one month of the year. Its remit is to serve Scottish audiences and Scottish writers and reach out to audiences all year round. "I don't dance for London," says Hill, and nor should he.
