Original Concept by Christine Devaney

Directed by Christine Devaney, Maria Oller and Jo Timmins

Review by Dominic Corr

Ambition sits at the heart of The Table, and it is ambition realised through a generosity of collaboration rather than singular authorship. Presented at the Traverse Theatre by Curious Seed, Lung Ha Theatre Company and Lyra, this collaborative mediation of poetry and music feels less like a traditional piece of theatre and more like an evolving ecosystem – one that thrives on movement, music and collective expression. It is a glorious, and important piece from some of Scotland’s most ground-breaking and important groups.

The initial niggles of potential audience interaction aside, the immediacy of The Table sets itself in a clear mindset of ‘are you invited?’ with its separating entrances for audience members who pick specific colours of invitations. Co-directed by Christine Devaney, Maria Oller and Jo Timmins, the work resists conventional narrative structure, opting instead for a series of interconnected episodes. These fragments orbit a central thematic question: who is invited to the table, and who is left outside its reach? It is a simple premise, yet the production expands it into something layered, abstract and often deeply moving.

There is no single protagonist here (though there is one jumping point of conversation and wrap-up). Instead, the ensemble – spanning professional dancers, actors with learning disabilities and autism, and young performers – constructs a shared language of storytelling. This collective approach becomes the production’s greatest strength. It allows multiple voices, bodies and energies to coexist onstage without being forced into uniformity. What emerges is an experience rooted in difference, where variation itself becomes the throughline.

Choreographically, the piece is driven by an expressive looseness that feels deliberate. Devaney’s movement vocabulary avoids rigid precision, favouring something more tactile and human. There are moments where the choreography leans into ragged edges with sudden shifts and imperfect synchronisation, and yet it is precisely this quality that gives the work its emotional texture. The dance sequences feel lived-in rather than polished, carrying an immediacy that aligns with the production’s broader themes of inclusion and lived experience.

The visual world, designed by Karen Tennent, provides a flexible canvas for these shifting ideas. Part catwalk, part high-end exclusive club, costumes and staging work in quiet harmony with the performers, allowing scenes to emerge and dissolve without imposing a fixed aesthetic. Projections and design elements shape the environment without overwhelming it, creating a space that feels simultaneously expansive and intimate. There’s a stripped back sense of colour here; so where it is utilised; it pops against the otherwise sterile environment.

Sound plays an equally vital role. Composer David Paul Jones, alongside Shea Martin, delivers a live score that threads through the production with clarity and warmth. The music does not simply accompany the action; it anchors it, lending cohesion to a structure that might otherwise risk fragmentation. There is a distinct sense that the soundscape acts as connective tissue, binding together the production’s more abstract moments. That, and there’s a few choice tunes thrown in for good measure, and an encouragement of the audience themselves to move.

Where The Table occasionally falters is in its scope. The episodic structure, while rich in possibility, can lead to sections that feel uneven in focus. Certain sequences resonate with striking clarity, while others drift closer to abstraction without fully grounding their intent. The result is a production that sometimes teeters on the edge of overextension, attempting to encompass more than it can always sustain.

Yet even within these inconsistencies, there is a clear sense of purpose. The work does not shy away from complexity—in fact, it embraces it. Questions around belonging, authorship and shared space are not resolved neatly, but rather left open, inviting reflection rather than dictating conclusion.

What lingers is the spirit of collaboration at its core. This is a production that foregrounds access and inclusivity not as thematic gestures but as fundamental principles of its creation. It challenges traditional hierarchies of performance, offering instead a model where multiple experiences are given equal weight. The Table is bold, naturally flowing and poetic, and frequently striking – a piece that succeeds not through uniformity, but through its willingness to hold contradiction and disorder in the same, beautiful, space.

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