“It’s about taking a little bit of everything and peppering it across the season.”
So said Jemima Levick as she and fellow joint artistic director Philip Howard outlined Dundee Rep Theatre’s ambitious autumn programme in an exclusive interview with The Courier.
And she is not wrong. From the BFG to a Trojan queen and Basil Fawlty the new season is nothing if not diverse.
While it is the pair’s first autumn season at the helm, certain mainstays gave the process of programming a certain inevitability.
“Logistically one always works back from Christmas,” Jemima said.
“And because we’ve established our Dundee City Community Tour which we know we want to deliver there’s a pattern there so then it’s a case of thinking how can we serve as wide a demographic as possible.
“This year it felt kind of inevitable, because it was Philip’s first season fully in the role, that he would start the season.”
The new programme kicks off in September with David Greig’s Highland play Victoria, telling the story of three generations of a community and a landed estate.
The show marks Philip’s debut as joint artistic director.
“It’s the perfect play to launch the season,” Jemima said.
“Because of his professional relationship with David Greig, Philip is the perfect person to direct that show and bring it back to Scotland.
“People don’t tackle that work very readily or easily but everyone will be doing it next year so I feel that we are ahead.”
After Victoria, the Rep moves from the Highlands to Troy with Hecuba, directed by Amanda Gaughan, who recently completed a Bank of Scotland’s new director’s placement with the NTS.
“When Amanda mentioned Hecuba that was the hairs on the back of the neck moment,” Jemima said.
Frank McGuiness’s version of Euripides’ classic will be performed in a specially constructed auditorium space.
The play follows Queen Hecuba after the Greeks have entered Troy and razed the city to the ground, killing most of her family.
Philip said: “It’s one of the great anti-war plays of our time.”
While Hecuba takes over the theatre building this year’s community tour will bring Promises Promises by Douglas Maxwell into the communtiy.
The one-woman show tells the story of teacher Maggie who fears a child is being mistreated in her own school.In a departure from the norm though, this year’s community play will stay solely in the community.
“Everything we are doing is a little bit of a departure,” Philip said.
“Doing Roald Dahl is definitely a departure and I don’t know when Dundee Rep last did a Greek show.”
But both directors insisted they were not making change for change’s sake.
Philip said: “For all the things we are developing we are not, I hope, guilty of developing things for the sake of it.
“Dundee Rep still provides something for everyone.”
The programme is completed with the Scottish Dance Theatre performance ‘Winter, Again and Second Coming and Sisco,’ and visiting theatre including critically acclaimed Roadkill, Educating Ronnie and Fawlty Towers The Dinner Show.
Philip and Jemima are already busy thinking ahead to 2014.
Jemima said: “We are trying our hardest to squeeze in even more next year.”