To celebrate and dissect the experience of living in America today are the dedications of New York based the TEAM, keen also to dissipate any specific political statements or generalised negative comments of the Mid-West states. Particularly in the Heartland has grown from the premiere Scratch Night at The Arches in Glasgow, and makes a well deserved Festival stop at the Traverse Theatre.

Siblings Sarah, Todd and Anna have been ‘left behind’ by their parents on their dilapidated farm in Kansas, and are visited by three strangers: pregnant teen Tracy Jo, the ghost of Robert F Kennedy and business woman Dorothy. They decide to stay, and one turbulent year passes.

Superb energy and passion positively seeps from this company’s pores. An uplifting yet melancholy soundtrack is used with subtlety to decorate the more powerful moments of the production, such as Sarah’s picnic and Tracy Jo’s first date. No piece of Nicholas Vaughan’s set is left unused, a thoroughly ravished stage in every practical and original way. King, Hastart and Sieh are perfectly honest in their stellar performances of American, and better yet, international youth, while the rest of the cast mirror this all-consuming believability only with the occasional investment of our own reality. ‘Truly radiant in its complexity’ an astounding production, surely one the best the Festival can offer.

DATES & TIMES
Fri 4 Aug (6.45pm),
Sat 5 Aug (9.15pm), Sun 6 Aug (11.15am), Tue 8 Aug (1.45pm), Wed 9 Aug (4.30pm), Thu 10 Aug (6.45pm), Fri 11 Aug (9.30pm), Sat 12 Aug (11.15am), Sun 13 Aug (1.45pm), Tue 15 Aug (7.15pm), Wed 16 Aug (9.30pm), Thu 17 Aug (11.15am), Fri 18 Aug (1.45pm), Sat 19 Aug (4.15pm), Sun 20 Aug (7pm), Tue 22 Aug (9.30pm), Wed 23 Aug (11.15am), Thu 24 Aug (1.45pm), Fri 25 Aug (4.15pm), Sat 26 Aug (7.15pm), Sun 27 Aug (9.30pm)

TCKETS
£12.50 (£9/unemployed £4.50)