Meet the Tron Theatre's new artistic director

As the Tron Theatre’s new artistic director, Levick is hugely delighted, yet entirely aware she will be writing the script of her great new adventure tale. “I’m still quite giddy with it all,” she says with a beaming smile as she surveys her queendom, “but it’s all really exciting. It’s the knowing that this is the place from which amazing theatre has emerged.”

Artistic directors such as Michael Boyd, Neil Murray and Andy Arnold have honed the theatre’s strategy of producing new plays, staging classics and taking in the washing that is visiting theatre companies. Since its opening in 1981, audiences have been wallowed in incredible performances of the likes of The Wonderful of Dissocia, Macbeth and A Steady Rain. Actors such as Iain Glen and Siobahn Redmond have graced the stage. And recent theatrical wonders include Pride & Prejudice (sort of) and Moorcroft.

Do the previous Tron successes make the task seem a little daunting? “Oh yeah, totally,” says Levick with a wry smile. “However, you can’t think about it too hard because if you do you just become paralysed. And you have to consider these are very different times.”

Levick is referring to how cash contained subsidised theatres are these days. By way of example, she looks to the furniture. “These chairs we’re sitting in are Eames chairs,” she says of the American classic design, “which were bought in the nineties. Okay, they are knackered now, but the point is we have to go to Ikea and pick up a couple of chairs for a fiver. The theatre is also different (the grand Victorian bar has gone). And the area around the theatre has changed.”

Yet, this isn’t an artistic director set to compile excuses before her reign has even begun. Levick’s previous job was with Oran Mor’s Play Pie and a Pint in which she produced an incredible 30 plays a season - on a budget tighter than a Shakespearean corset. If Oran Mor was the equivalent of production line soap TV, the Tron is the chance to make high end television. “Yes, you have the time to make better decisions, to talk to people, share ideas and then come back to an idea later. And that’s delightful.”

Levick is entirely aware that theatre success is all about alchemy, the right script, the right director, musical director, good actors. It’s also about derring do, getting the creatives together who combine to sometimes produce magic, create a world in which and hearts and minds are released. “My plan is to make brilliant theatre,” she says in confident voice. “We make four or five shows a year here, and that’s not a huge amount - and so if you can’t make them brilliant at the very least, they should be exceptional.”

She won’t be driven to emulate past successes. “You can’t make a Pride and Prejudice (sort of) every time you make a show,” she declares. Then adds, smiling, “I don’t even know if they (Andy Arnold’s team) knew what they were making when they made it.”

Jemima Levick’s passion for theatre is as powerful as Portia’s speech. Growing up in London, the family moved to Bristol (“because the roof was falling in it was far cheaper"). She studied at Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret, worked in admin at the Traverse, waitressed in the restaurant around the corner and made her way up the ladder, working at Dundee Rep as an assistant director, going on to become Chief Executive of Stellar Quines Theatre Company. Along the way she has picked up a clutch of awards and directed work for the Citizens’ Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal Lyceum Theatre and the Traverse.

Andy Arnold has stepped down at the Tron Theatre after 16 years (Image: free)

Audiences will be keen however to see the direction in which she takes the Trongate-based theatre. “I couldn’t find a single play that let me sort my stall out for what I want to do with the Tron,” she admits. “And I’m going through this sort of Candy Crush moment right now where I’m waiting for different things to land in terms of securing rights, but we’ll be doing a mix of classics - and that means classics presented in the most contemporary way, plays that speak to now - and we’ll be doing adaptations, such as Liz Lochhead used to do with Moliere. And you wonder ‘How might Johnny McKnight (ace writer-director) handle Chekhov?’”

The new artistic director is keen to attach labels to the Tron’s programme. “If you do a Shakespeare, you’re a Shakespeare producer, or if it’s a new play, then you’re seen as a new play person. She adds; “When I first thought of applying for this job, I looked at my bookshelf and noticed the plays I hadn’t thought about since my days at Dundee Rep, such as the Irish canon. Because I’ve been working on so much new material, I’ve sort of ignored this work. But I want to do new plays as well. And revisit the Scottish canon. Why don’t go we back to the plays we did at the Traverse or plays by Nicola McCartney or David Harrower.”

Levick, a mum-of-two whose children are already theatre-immersed, pauses for a second. “So, I’m going to try and lay out what we’re going to do for the whole year.” She laughs. “Yes, and I’m thinking ‘Oh my f****** God.’ But we can try!”

The Tron boss also plans to plunder the Play Pie and a Pint back catalogue. “Of the 650 plays, about a 100 are very good, 50 are exceptional and 40 are really exceptional, and I wonder if we could stage some here, or perhaps take them out into the community. That sort of strategy really worked at Dundee.”

The enthusiasm continues to rise in her voice as she talks about her first show being staged around February-March 2025, utilising ‘the great actors up here.’ “There are a whole generation of actors who haven’t had a shot at doing The Glass Menagerie yet, or An Arthur Miller or a Joe Orton. We have to remind ourselves of the artistic framework we built our theatre upon.”

It’s Levick’s theatre now. The script she writes of the magic palace will surely hit the mark. But the artistic director will have help along the way. “People like Johnny McKnight know this audience really well, and I can say to him ‘Would you just read this play for me and tell me what you think?’ And he will, and we also have a great team here such as Viviane Hullin, the artistic producer and marketing manager Lindsay Mitchell who know the audiences really well.” She grins. “And they are great at going ‘That’s interesting.’ And you know from the tone of their voice that the play will need a bit of work, or that it will run for two weeks rather than four.”

Her smile broadens as she gets into her stride. “What this theatre is about is a spirit of adventure. And my plan is to stand on the broad shoulders of those adventurers who’ve worked here in the past. So, I’m going to have a lovely time doing that and do my best.”