When the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow announced earlier this year that the centrepiece of its 70th anniversary Spring season in 2015 would be a new production of John Byrne's play The Slab Boys, it confirmed excited whispers which had been circulating for some time.

The Slab Boys has become a bona fide modern classic since it premiered at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 1978 and the fact it will be directed by David Hayman, who directed the original production of the play that redefined Scottish theatre 36 years ago, gave the news an extra frisson. It will also see Hayman, who blazed a trail as part of the legendary 1970s Citz ensemble, make his second return to his theatrical alma mater under the tenure of current artistic director Dominic Hill, following his barn-storming turn in the title role of Hill's King Lear.

The exclusive announcement in today's Herald confirms that the remainder of the Citz's Spring 2015 season looks set to be equally special.

"We wanted to do work that was close to home," Hill explains. "John and David have been talking to me about doing it here for some time. It feels like the right theatre to do it, and a nice celebratory way to start the year."

The second major Citizens production will be a new play by Douglas Maxwell. Fever Dream: Southside is a Glasgow-set study of life in Govanhill during a heatwave. With a clear link between the comedy of truth that fires both Byrne and Maxwell's work down the generations, Fever Dream: Southside will also mark a production of Maxwell's first big play since If Destroyed True several years back.

"It's a play about fatherhood," says Hill, "and focuses on the fears of new parents bringing up a child in a city. The play has this almost Johnsonian sense of larger than life characters in a community, and is kind of a play about home and people's need for beliefs. There's this entire community of characters, written in these wonderful bright colours that Douglas brings to his work. Douglas isn't afraid to be funny, and there's a real vitality to his work, but there's real integrity to it as well."

There are even more links to the ghosts of Citizens past in its third in-house production. Into That Darkness is Robert David MacDonald's stage adaptation of a book by historian Gitta Sereny, in which she interviewed Franz Stangl, the extermination camp commandant who was finally convicted in 1970 for murdering more than one million people in Nazi death camps.

"I read the book years ago," says Hill, "and thought then that it would make a great piece of theatre. Then when I came here I found out that Robert David MacDonald had done it, so it seemed a real opportunity to have another look at it."

The production will be directed by Gareth Nicholls, currently the Citz's main stage director in residence, a post shared between the Citizens and Stewart Laing's Untitled Projects, and supported by Creative Scotland's Creative Futures Programme and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. Into That Darkness will be Nicholls's first main-stage show after assisting Hill on Hamlet.

Hill's programme continues to forge links with visiting companies who have now become Citizens regulars, as well as fostering new alliances. The season will open with what looks set to be a fascinating production of Macbeth by Filter Theatre, while in March, Headlong return with a new look at David Hare's 1993 play The Absence of War, which looks at a charismatic Labour Party leader's attempts to be elected into power.

"I like the idea that we connect with companies," Hill says, "and for audiences to develop a relationship with them. I wanted to see Filter doing something more serious, and the resonances of The Absence of War in the run-up to the UK General Election and everything that's going on in the Labour Party are huge."

Absence of War will be followed by Lippy, Bush Moukarzel's play for Ireland's Dead Centre company, which was a hit in this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was given a Herald Angel award. Lippy will form part of the off-site programme of the Arches 2015 Behaviour festival, and will be the first time the two venues have collaborated.

"The response to that show in Edinburgh was so huge," says Hill, "that I thought it was important that it was seen on this side of the country. The opportunity to work with the Arches is interesting, and may open up the Citizens to a different kind of audience."

Beyond Spring 2015, the Citizens team are fund-raising for a multi- million-pound refurbishment of the theatre. With a projected £16million to be sourced, £11.4m has already been secured from a mix of Heritage Lottery Fund (£4.9m), Glasgow City Council (£4m), Creative Scotland (£1.5m) and £500,000 apiece from Historic Scotland and the Robertson Trust.

While the capital project might appear on track, Hill can't be complacent, especially with tomorrow's announcement by Creative Scotland which will outline which arts bodies will receive subsidies from its regular funding scheme. Given a track record which last weekend saw the Citizens win an Arts and Business award for this year's Commonwealth programme, it seems unlikely the Gorbals-based institution will lose out in any major way, but Hill isn't taking anything for granted.

"Like most organisations," he says, "the Citizens is looking for an increase in what we normally get from Creative Scotland, but they've already said that there has been more money applied for than there is available."

Tickets for shows in the Citizens Theatre's Spring 2015 season go on sale from today.www.citz.co.uk