The Three Musketeers and the Princess of Spain

There are rumours emerging from the south that The Traverse's Christmas show, The Three Musketers and the Princess of Spain, is not a typical family treat. While reviews have been mixed – in some cases vitriolic, others positive – director Dominic Hill seems to have escaped from the sentimentality and romance of most seasonal plays, and settled on something darker and more bawdy.

It is unsurprising that The Traverse bucks the trend of Christmas tinsel: in the past year, Hill has directed The Goat, a tale of bestiality, and booked Tim Crouch's shocking The Author – a play which found a new way to undermine and frighten the audience. Teaming up with author Chris Hannan was never likely to trouble audiences pondering whether Jim Davidson or The Crankies were the better bet for an annual trip to the theatre. Hannan's previous works include Shining Souls and Elizabeth Gordon Quinn, which were remarkable for the monstrosity and glamour of their central, female characters. Hannan is no hack ready to knock off asides to adults.

Aside from choreography from Fleur Darkin, who recently brought her immersive and disorientating Disgo to Trav 1, The Three Musketeers finds the heroic trio past their best, stuck in the Parisian underworld and surrounded by scatological humour and embarking on an adventure that has been described as too frightening for children. In the context of yuletide cheer, this is alarming, but heartening. Perhaps the rescue of Christmas theatre from commercial sentimentality begins here. [Margaret Kirk]