Following the runaway success of last year's 'Guerrilla theatre' event on the day and night of the general election at the Traverse, we’ve decided to do it again. Read more …
David Greig returns to direct this year’s Traverse election special, Welcome to the Hotel Caledonia, written by some of Scotland’s most exciting writers.
It's election night in the Hotel Caledonia, not that anybody cares. There are two weddings on and one's descending into a fistfight. The bar's littered with exhausted politicians who can't bring themselves to watch the count, the groom's trying to decide which bridesmaid to chat up on the principle of the single transferable vote, and Mr and Mrs Scotland's attempt at a dirty weekend is descending into divorce.
At the centre of it all, Svetlana - the Lithuanian receptionist - is trying to decide whether she should stay or go. Can Gavin - the assistant manager with a crush on her the size of a small Baltic Republic - persuade her that Scotland’s got a future?
Welcome to the Hotel Caledonia will be written in the two days prior to May 5th to capture the immediacy and excitement of the election and the unfolding events of the week. It will be performed script in hand on the day of the election itself. Some of Scotland's most exciting writers will conjure up a cast of dreamers, ranters, visionaries and street preachers all trying to make sense of a country which just can't seem to make up its mind what it wants. Expect comedy, satire and probably a fair degree of bitterness and rage.
And after the show, why not stay and watch the results in the Traverse Bar so you can find out what really happens at the end of the story.
Welcome to the Hotel Caledonia, Tripadvisor.com says 'it's a lovely place', but be warned, 'You can check out but you can never leave.'
Scottish Wave of Change is working to create forums of discussion, debate and action and develop national and international connections before the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. The organisation asked writers to give a fictional response to the question, "what values should face the future of Scotland?" The responces of Alan Warner, Allan Massie and a wide range of others, along with the script of Welcome to the Hotel Caledonia, will be published by Scottish Wave of Change in the coming weeks.
If all this suggests an over-riding downbeat tone to this follow-up to last year’s Westminster election dissection of Gordon Brown’s brain, actors Barrie Hunter, Andrew Scott Ramsay and Ashley Smith have fun regardless in an a scurrilously metaphorical living newspaper.
At its best, though, Hotel Caledonia was rich, human, clever and full of insight; and illuminated by terrific performances from three heroic performers, Barrie Hunter, Andrew Scott Ramsay, and Ashley Smith as the lovely Svetlana, who finally decides to stay.
Though this production doesn’t quite live up to the roaring success of last year’s election special, it still finds its place as overwhelmingly relevant.
Welcome to The Hotel Caledonia
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Thursday May 5, 2011. More info: www.traverse.co.uk
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