A podcaster chasing a decade-old murder, a live band scoring every twist, and three screens flickering across a dark auditorium — Malaika Kegode's Badgers opened at the Traverse Theatre on 6 August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe, running through to 30 August.

The production, staged in Traverse 2, is a Theatre Royal Plymouth piece presented in association with Bristol Old Vic, and made its world premiere within TravFest26 — the Traverse Theatre's annual August programme of new writing from Scotland and beyond (Traverse Theatre).

Kegode, the writer, calls on a heady mix of genres. Badgers is billed as combining gig theatre — where live music and performance are inseparable — with live podcasting, true crime, murder mystery, folk horror and supernatural intrigue (WhatsOnStage). The Traverse describes it as "a folk tale about folk tales," exploring the art of letting go and the ethics of true crime as a storytelling form (Traverse Theatre).

The narrative follows Meles, a struggling podcaster living in a rural town haunted by a cold case that has gone unsolved for ten years. The Traverse also tags the show as a shape-shifting, mercurial piece from the team behind Outlier, a previous Kegode-led production (Traverse Theatre).

Music sits at the centre of the piece. The score was composed by Jakabol and performed live on stage by musicians Joe Williams and Beth Roberts. Christopher Harrison designed the video elements, which spread across three screens in the auditorium. Mike Gunning and Natalia Chan co-designed the lighting. Jenny Davies directs. Production photography is by Paul Blakemore (WhatsOnStage).

For audiences, the appeal is the format as much as the plot. A show that braids spoken word, live music and podcast-style narration into a single evening is rare even at the Fringe, where hybrid work has become more common in recent years. The Traverse, a venue long associated with new writing rather than conventional drama, has built its August reputation on exactly this kind of cross-form programming.

Badgers is recommended for audiences aged 12 and over (Edinburgh Fringe). Enhanced performances — adapted for deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or partially sighted theatregoers — were scheduled on 21 August (12:45–13:55) and 25 August (20:30–21:40) (Edinburgh Fringe).

The show is also listed on the official Edinburgh Fringe programme at edfringe.com, confirming its place in the wider festival alongside the Traverse's own curated strand (Edinburgh Fringe).

The Fringe runs throughout August across hundreds of venues in Edinburgh. The Traverse Theatre, on Cambridge Street, remains one of the festival's highest-profile dedicated theatre spaces, with TravFest26 programming running across both its auditoriums — Traverse 1 and the more intimate Traverse 2, where Badgers is staged.