Just read a moody review of this fine piece of work in the Sunday Times magazine for last Sunday. The reviewer seemed to think that this debut play was not the kind of thing that the "once reliable Traverse" should not have put on as a main event.
Well, I would just like to disagree. The guy in the Independent, the "I", said the play came off a slush pile for one thing. I can only remember the Traverse doing one play in all the years I've been going there that was sent in "blind" by a new writer. This is most heartening since the Traverse is supposed to be about encouraging new writing. Putting on a play by someone quite new is just what the Traverse is supposed to be there for.
Also, I thought it was extremely well written. If someone at the Traverse reads something like this and doesn't want it to be staged .... well, that's really what you might expect. Also, with new work there has to be, of course, a high standard of writing, but there should also be the right to fail.
There might have been some questions about the shape of the play, but for a new writer I thought it was a great debut. I don't know if Ross is a male or a female, but if the Traverse were to commission a new play from her(him), I'd certainly go and see it. Anyway, Milk was the best thing I saw on the Fringe this year.
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