Scottish Writers Community: Panel Discussion

What makes new writing in Scotland unique?

Join a discussion chaired by Fergus Morgan (The Stage’s Scotland correspondent and freelance theatre critic) Gareth Nicholls (Traverse Artistic Director), Michael John O’Neill (2025 IASH x Traverse Playwriting fellow), Isla Cowan (2024 IASH x Traverse Playwriting fellow) and Apphia Campbell (2021 IASH x Traverse Playwriting fellow), to discuss the future of Scottish theatre, contemporary theatre narratives and what writers want to address.

This event will also feature an excerpt reading of Michael John O’Neill’s new work in development, Headland, which is a result of the IASH x Traverse fellowship 2025.

Headland is set on the north coast of Ireland in 1902, where the sea is both lifeline and threat. Peter, a young fisherman burdened by grief and duty, finds himself tethered to a boy he can’t quite love and can’t fully leave behind. As the fishing trade faces collapse and family bonds strain, Peter is drawn toward a future with Lizzy, while the boy, isolated and desperate for meaning, falls under the influence of a charismatic outsider whose seductive creed of strength and purity offers belonging at a terrible cost.

Blending poetic realism with mythic undercurrents, Headland is a haunting exploration of masculinity, grief, and the quiet rise of extremism in a rural community on the brink. This extract is shared from a first draft developed during the first months of Michael’s 2025 IASH/Traverse Creative Fellowship.

Scottish Writers Community: Panel Discussion is part of the Traverse's £1 Ticket Project.

Image: Serden Salih (from A History Of Scottish Drama in Six Plays launch event, Oct 2024)

The Traverse Theatre is funded by Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council

If you have access requirements, please contact our Sales and Welcome Team on boxoffice@traverse.co.uk or 0131 228 1404 so we can arrange reserved seating for you and discuss how else we can best support your visit.