This the time of year commentators like to weigh in about the big themes on the Edinburgh fringe. The festival is a cultural barometer and, after a few days of back-to-back theatregoing, you seem to get an insight into society’s most pressing concerns. Last year, for example, it was all about colonialism and its connections to misogyny, capitalism and violence.
Things this year, of course, are different, but the Traverse is gamely flying the festival flag with an online programme that captures something of the excitement of plays rubbing up against each other. Being released over the course of this week, its audio-only Breakfast Plays introduce five playwrights whose concerns extend beyond our current Covid preoccupations but can’t quite shake off a sense of apocalyptic doom. [READ MORE]