Fri Jul 27, Sat 28, 8pm; Sun 29 and Wed Aug 1, 7pm; Sat Aug 4-26, various times, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, £11-£16 (£5-£11), 0131 228 1404 Next month, the name of David Greig will be all over Edinburgh. Not only is the prolific playwright responsible for Damascus at the Traverse, but also for the excellent Yellow Moon, being revived by Glasgow's TAG. Just in case we think he's slacking, he has also produced the translation of The Bacchae for the National Theatre of Scotland's International Festival production starring Alan Cumming. Once that lot is out of the way, his adaptation of Hergé's Adventures of Tintin will be visiting the Edinburgh Playhouse.
This weekend you can get in ahead of the crowds and see preview performances of Damascus. It is about a salesman (Paul Higgins) who gets stuck in Damascus after a bomb hits Beirut Airport. Negotiating with his Syrian contact, he starts to realise that behind the language barriers and cultural misunderstandings, real communication might actually be possible.
Although based in Edinburgh, Greig has a keen interest in the Middle East. He has taught young playwrights in the region and toured to Iran and Jordan with his last play for the Traverse, an adaptation of When the Bubul Stopped Singing, a diary of the 2002 siege of Ramallah. Damascus reunites the team behind that production, including director Philip Howard.
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