From 90s heists to future dystopias, the unifying theme of this year’s 4PLAY season isn’t just new writing—it’s the desperate, messy business of survival. W.J. Quinn previews the four scripts fighting for life at the Traverse.
“We’re unfunded and make this work often with no money except what we put into it ourselves. But we believe in the work we are doing.”
There is a grim symmetry between the production realities of independent Scottish theatre and the characters inhabiting the stages they build. Both exist in a state of precarious necessity. Both are reliant on networks of support often invisible to the naked eye. And both, generally, are fighting to stay upright.
Staci Shaw, a producer with 4PLAY since 2023, is frank about the landscape her company occupies as they return to the Traverse Theatre this December. “We make a considered effort to create opportunities for artists from minority groups,” she notes, highlighting the systemic barriers that have only hardened in the last decade. “We know we still have some work to do in this respect but it is always a consideration when forming the creative teams we work with.”
It is fitting, then, that for their fourth outing at Edinburgh’s home of new writing, 4PLAY has assembled a quartet of scripts that feel less like a collection of disparate scenes and more like a manifesto on survival. Whether it is a heist in the 90s, a building site in the present, or a Highland hideout in a collapsing future, the question echoing through the Traverse 2 will be the same: when the safety net is gone, who catches you?
The Hustle
The most raucous exploration of this desperation comes from 4PLAY Co-Founder Ruaraidh Murray. His latest offering, CHIPS, rewinds the clock to 1996, plunging audiences into the “wild” world of microchip robbery. It is a premise that sounds almost quaint in our digital age—stealing physical chips—but for Murray, it is grounded in a specific, gritty reality.
“CHIPS is based on the true story of some of my childhood pals (sadly all passed now) who got into microchip robbery when it was rife in the 90s,” Murray explains. “I’d never seen a play based on microchip robbery so I’m excited to see how audiences react to an unusual crime comedy carried out by a bunch of charismatic Edinburgh chancers.”
“We’re unfunded and make this work often with no money except what we put into it ourselves. But we believe in the work we are doing.”
Staci Shaw, producer of 4PLAY
However, Murray—never one to write a simple caper—has anchored the chaos in a high-stakes moral dilemma. The heist is framed around Kaz, a heavily pregnant woman. Christie Russell-Brown, who plays Kaz, identifies the tension immediately: “The challenge for us has been making sure not to lean into the comedy to the point that the play becomes a farce. We need to make sure we perpetuate that the story is based on real people and true events.”
It is a delicate balance. The “charismatic Edinburgh chancers” are not just comic figures; they are people acting out of economic necessity. As Murray puts it, the pregnancy “ups the stakes to the max and shows the desperate plight of the lead character Kaz and what she’s willing to do to give her unborn child a better start in life.”
Shaw adds that the rehearsal room has been filled with Murray’s recollections of the real men behind the fiction. “You couldn’t make them up,” she says. “But like with most real life circumstances the comedy often comes out of dark moments. I think we’ve all experienced that.”
The Collapse
If CHIPS looks to the past for its survival narrative, HUNT by another 4PLAY Co-Founder Andrea McKenzie looks nervously to a near-future. The premise is classic genre territory: townies fleeing an “AI ravaged big city” for the Highlands. But McKenzie has little interest in writing a blockbuster disaster movie. She is interested in the people usually left out of the action hero lineup: women in their 40s and 50s.
“Yeah ‘fish out of water’ is a classic trope which leaves plenty of room for comedy,” McKenzie says. “The added layer is these are women… who society may deem ‘past it’, so their only option is to save themselves.”
Director Gwen is quick to clarify the tone. “It’s not a satire, but it does ask questions about our class system, and the importance of forming close bonds and networks between each other. If the government won’t look after you, who will?”
That question—who will look after you?—forms the emotional spine of the piece. While McKenzie admits the play is an “introduction to what could go wrong with AI,” she suggests the tone is driven by that uniquely Scottish coping mechanism: “I think the more serious the situation, the dafter you can act – it’s that typical ‘gallows humour’ thing, isn’t it?”
Deborah, playing Mags, describes the relationship dynamic as “like when you go on holiday with your best friends… at some stage it becomes difficult to put up with them.” But McKenzie insists that beneath the friction of survivalism, HUNT is about the necessity of the pack. “In good times and in bad, the people around you and the relationships you have cultivated are ultimately the key to happiness.”
The Scaffold
While Murray and McKenzie represent the returning guard of 4PLAY, this year sees the introduction of two new voices, brought in to keep the ecosystem fresh. “This year we went in knowing that we would have new writers joining the team,” Shaw explains. One of those voices is Geraldine Lang, whose play BRACE offers perhaps the most literal interpretation of the season’s themes.
Set on a construction site where two apprentices compete for a single permanent position, BRACE deals with the physical danger of scaffolding and the psychological danger of poverty.
“When you don’t have a safety net to fall back on, it’s harder to take risks,” Lang observes, noting that her script is, on reflection, a “state of the nation piece.” The play examines the friction between male friendship and economic survival. “I think the politics is inherently part of the friendship… They understand that about each other’s world view.”
For the actors, this environment offers a rare chance to subvert the stereotype of the ‘hard man’. Kieran Lee-Hamilton (Lewis) notes: “Giving vulnerability to working-class people that society typically views as hyper masculine, has been a unique and fun challenge… exploring this through financial and familial strain, has given us a great avenue to dig deep into what people are willing to do to survive.”
Director Matthew Attwood aims to place the audience in the centre of this “fast-paced, labour-intensive construction site.” But he is keenly aware that the real vertigo isn’t just physical. “As the play progresses, we witness how their shortcuts create cracks in the scaffold’s foundations, causing both the structure and the characters themselves to grow unstable.”
“When you don’t have a safety net to fall back on, it’s harder to take risks,” Lang observes, noting that her script is, on reflection, a “state of the nation piece.”
Jack Elvey (Paul) highlights the cultural resistance to this kind of exposure. “Particularly Scottish men can be really humble and don’t want to hear about how being vulnerable and talking about it is a brave thing… characters like these guys, and their friendship, absolutely suffers from being completely uncomfortable having any kind of vulnerable conversation.”
The End
Rounding out the quartet is Sunday Palms, the writing debut of actor Sean Langtree. Having previously performed in 4PLAY’s success story Colours Run, Langtree has crossed the divide to pen a Pinter-esque drama about a reunion between old friends, where “the end” is apparently near.
The transition from actor to writer has created a fluid dynamic in the room. “I have been doing my best to approach each rehearsal as an actor,” Langtree says, “but at the same time being very willing to answer any questions… I haven’t been so precious about the dialogue.”
This lack of ego has allowed the cast to shape the script in real-time. Langtree recounts a moment in a pub with actor Daniel Campbell (playing Brian) that led to a new line about whether a character dreams. “It was a brilliant thought and one that honestly hadn’t crossed my mind, but I went home that night and edited it into the script.”
For Campbell, the on-stage chemistry had to be manufactured from scratch, despite the characters having a shared decade of history. “It’s strange when you meet someone you barely know, yet it feels like you’ve known them for ten years,” he muses. “All the chaos they’ve brushed under the carpet comes to the surface a decade later, and they’re forced to confront it.”
Director Grace Ava Baker suggests that Sunday Palms is defined by what is withheld as much as what is spoken. “The ending is always in sight, but never in the way we expect,” she says. “Everything contributes to the delicate balance between revelation and restraint.”
The Collaborators
Ultimately, 4PLAY is not just about the four scripts on the stands; it is about the “future life” these plays might have. Shaw points to Colours Run and Katy Nixon’s Cheapo as evidence that this event is an incubator, not a showcase. But that incubation requires a final, crucial element: the audience.
“An audiences reaction and feedback is invaluable in that process,” Shaw says. “That’s how you know, when you sit with an audience, if you have something… You could hear a pin drop in the audience each time [with Colours Run]. It’s rare to have such a reaction at the early stages and for it to hold through.”
In a theatre landscape defined by funding cuts and risk aversion, 4PLAY remains a stubborn, vital outlier. It creates a space where a microchip heist, a Highland apocalypse, a crumbling scaffold, and a quiet reunion can sit side by side, united by the grit required to bring them into existence.
For Shaw, the mission is simple, and the credit belongs to the people in the seats as much as the people on the stage.
“Given we are back at the Traverse for the 4th time I would say our audiences have had the biggest impact; we wouldn’t have gotten back this far if it weren’t for them.”
Featured Image: 4PlAY – Traverse Theatre Poster Image
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