A performer crouches and reaches on a sharply tilted wooden platform suspended in a dark stage space.

Traverse 1, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh2019

How Not To Drown

The Production

A ThickSkin and Traverse Theatre Company world premiere, co-produced with Tron Theatre and Lawrence Batley Theatre, How Not To Drown is Nicola McCartney and Dritan Kastrati’s autobiographical physical-theatre play about Kastrati’s journey from post-war Kosovo to the UK care system. Staged in Traverse 1 during Edinburgh’s 2019 festival season, the production won a Scotsman Fringe First and a Herald Angel.

30 photographs in the curated edit

Director: Neil Bettles
Choreographer: Neil Bettles, with co-choreographer Jonnie Riordan
Lighting Design: Zoe Spurr
Set & Costume Design: Becky Minto
Sound Design: Alexandra Faye Braithwaite

A woman faces a bearded man in a white vest at close range, holding patterned fabric between them.

An ensemble charges forward across the platform with outstretched arms, framed by the surrounding dark stage.

The empty tilted wooden platform sits under stage lights in a black performance space.

Five performers crowd tightly around a distressed central man, gripping his shoulders and arms against a black background.

A diagonal raised platform fills the dark stage as a group moves in formation and a lone observer stands in the foreground.

Two seated performers focus on a hand gesture, their faces and hands lit against the dark background.

Two performers lie face down on the platform while a man stands behind them in shadow.

Performers and crew cluster around the edge and underside of the tilted platform, with theatre balconies and rigging visible above.

A man stands alone at the centre of a small wooden platform, isolated by black space and overhead light.

A performer strides over two people sprawled on the platform, one reaching toward the camera in a low tilted composition.

A woman sits beside an open script on the floor while a small group rehearses on the platform in the distance.

An ensemble stands on the platform as a man lunges forward with one arm reaching outward.

A smiling woman peers over the edge of the raised wooden platform from below.

Five performers stand separated across the platform, facing forward under sparse overhead lights.

Kneeling performers reach toward a man at the edge of the platform in a tense, low tableau.

A woman in black speaks intensely in the foreground while other performers blur behind her.

Four performers lunge outward with extended arms on the wooden platform while another performer sits watching at the edge.

Three performers sit at the front of the platform while a man stands behind them in the dark stage space.

From the auditorium, performers occupy and surround the tilted platform as hands reach up from below.

Four performers confront a central man at close range, hands pressed to his face, chest and shoulders.

Three seated performers huddle together smiling on the wooden platform.

A group of performers braces and reaches forward together along the wooden platform beneath bright stage lights.

A bearded man sits alone at the front of the platform while four performers stand in a line behind him.

A blurred figure rushes past with arms flung out while other performers cluster behind on the platform.

Five performers stand in shallow focus, with a woman in a pale hoodie gesturing anxiously near the centre.

A bearded man in a white sleeveless top sits cross-legged alone on a pale wooden platform under overhead spotlights.

Four performers face a man seen from behind, their bodies held tense against the black backdrop.

From a low viewpoint along the wooden floor, a kneeling man leans over two crouched performers in the distance.

Three seated performers on the platform smile and gesture toward something off camera.

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How Not To Drown — Theatre Photography at Traverse 1, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh | Steve Gregson