Presented by the National Theatre of Scotland and the Traverse Theatre as a double-bill as part of their Debuts season, these two shorts plays take an unflinching look at the darker side of Scottish families. In Kenny Lindsay's The Dogstone, a father and son aren't seeing eye to eye in Oban. Teenager Lorn is trying to get his life started as his Dad is throwing his away with last night's empties. He's a 'heroic drinker' who loves to tell Lorn the local legends and stories of warriors, kings and the fabled Dogstone. Just how far can his fantasies take him? Andy Duffy's Nasty, Brutish and Short finds two brothers, Jim and Luke, holed up in a Glasgow flat. No job, no money and it looks like the only things on offer are all bad. As the options start to run out, Jim takes what isn't his and sets the two brothers on a collision course . . .

'All the money went and there was nothing to buy food with. So Mothers and Fathers tried to find things they could get rid of, things that ate, things that drank or things that needed to be kept warm. The dogs went first.' Ivan and the Dogs is based on the extraordinary true story of Ivan Mishukov, who walked out of his Moscow apartment at the age of four and spent two years living on the city streets where he was adopted by a pack of wild dogs. In the recession-ravaged city, the human world is dominated by deprivation and violence. When social breakdown from extremes of impoverishment, cruelty and selfishness starts to set in, a homeless child's only hope is to turn to feral dogs for company, protection and warmth. This spellbinding story of survival and need conjures the streets of Moscow in the 1990s through the eyes of a child. With innocence and fear, Ivan's perceptions of the world are beautifully described, from the acute awareness of hunger and fear, to the innocent understanding of chemical abuse in the 'empty eyes' of children and the ridiculed 'Bombzi'.

Victoria Frankenstein is a brilliant, visionary young woman. It's an age of enlightenment, a time when old orders begin to crumble and everything seems possible. Provided of course, that you are an English-man. Women are not allowed to study medicine in England, so Victoria travels to Bavaria to fulfil her destiny and become Dr. Frankenstein. Victoria's experiments lead her to very brink of human knowledge, the secret of life itself.

'People know, you're my boy. And they know better than to lay a fucking finger on you. See? You are safer here with me, than you have ever been.' Liam's 17 years old, loves Dr Who and has lost his mum. He has had to move from London to Wales, to the valleys, to the middle of nowhere, to live with a dad he doesn't know. Whose nickname isn't Violence for nothing.

“A thousand people are taking a sip of coffee within the city limits of Johannesburg, each unaware of the other doing it, each one necessarily thinking they are the only one.” An attempt to get to grips with the fact that everything happens at once. And to see if there’s anything we can do about it. “Find the connection between where you are and where I am. Open up the space between us and do something.”

Society is fuelled by anger; dissatisfaction shapes Twitter feeds, online petitions and protest marches. But is that enough to bring about change? Alejandra and Marcela are female anarchists, nervously planning to plant bombs in the middle of the night. They don't want violence. They just want to be heard. Prison's not much of a threat when most of your friends are inside. Then they meet José Miguel. He is from a different generation, a time when revolution was ripe and activism alive, and he's committed to change by any means possible. B explores what revolution and violence mean to two different generations. As they talk. the women's naivety is exposed, and "Calderón manages successfully to convey the self-aggrandising absurdity that often lies behind terrorist acts." (The Guardian). B is written by Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderon and was developed as part of the Royal Court Theatre's international programme.

Startling debut play co-produced by National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse, Edinburgh.

The 'pugnaciously funny' debut play looking at religion, booze and gambling.

Presented by the National Theatre of Scotland and the Traverse Theatre as a double-bill as part of their Debuts season, these two shorts plays take an unflinching look at the darker side of Scottish families. In Kenny Lindsay's The Dogstone, a father and son aren't seeing eye to eye in Oban. Teenager Lorn is trying to get his life started as his Dad is throwing his away with last night's empties. He's a 'heroic drinker' who loves to tell Lorn the local legends and stories of warriors, kings and the fabled Dogstone. Just how far can his fantasies take him? Andy Duffy's Nasty, Brutish and Short finds two brothers, Jim and Luke, holed up in a Glasgow flat. No job, no money and it looks like the only things on offer are all bad. As the options start to run out, Jim takes what isn't his and sets the two brothers on a collision course . . .