Citizens charter for autumn is a mix of many talents

The Imaginate festival of theatre for children and young people may be over, but its after-effects are clearly still lingering the day Jeremy Raison, co-artistic director of Glasgow's Citizens Theatre, arrives in Edinburgh. His professional other half, Guy Hollands, has been directing Museum of Dreams for the Citizen's sister company TAG, one of Imaginate's big hitters this year. Today, however, in the Traverse Theatre bar, Hollands is absent, having fallen prey to flu - which is a shame, because since Hollands and Raison jointly took over the reins of the Citizens, their double act has ushered in an era of inter-company synergy.

So it is with the forthcoming season, announced exclusively in The Herald, whereby each will direct one of two main stage in-house shows, while the outgoing recipient of the theatre's trainee director scheme will make her debut in the Circle Studio with a little-known contemporary piece. The building's assorted community companies, meanwhile, will continue their high profile role in the theatre's programme alongside an ongoing season of visiting companies.

Hollands will direct Othello, Shakespeare's bloody saga of the eponymous Moor whose love for Desdemona is warped by the Machiavellian interventions of his right-hand man Iago.

Raison's main stage tenure will be on a new version of Cinderella for the Citizen's festive season, a considerably jollier job, one suspects, than on his current production of Ibsen's Ghosts.

Running at the same time in the Circle studio will be Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks' Pulitzer Prize winning play about two brothers struggles to get by on the streets. The play will be directed by Leann O'Kasi, who has spent the last year as a trainee director at the Citizens.

Prior to all this, will be the appearance of two works by playwright Rona Munro.

In mid-August the Citz hosts two previews of The Last Witch, Munro's new play for the Traverse Theatre in a co-production with Edinburgh International Festival.

This reimagining of the story behind the last woman to be executed in Scotland for witchcraft will then transfer for a full run at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre. The autumn season will begin properly with Munro's new translation of Lorca's brooding masterpiece, The House of Bernarda Alba, for the National Theatre of Scotland. Directed by John Tiffany and featuring a strong female cast led by Siobhan Redmond, the action will be reset from Spain to Glasgow. In Raison's eyes, this makes up for what might be construed as a minimum of main stage in-house work.

"Part of this is financial,"

Raison admits, acknowledging the effect of the recession on corporate sponsorship. "But it was also partly a creative decision, because we knew about two years ago that Bernarda Alba might be on the cards.

"As part of our programme, it felt like a strong opener to the season, and followed by Othello and Cinderella, that felt more like a really strong package. Attached to that, when The Traverse got in touch to see if they could preview Rona's new play, it all felt terribly serendipitous, and something of a Rona Munro double whammy."

For the two grown-up Citz plays, both Othello and Topdog/Underdog are notable for focusing on black characters, especially as some Othellos of the past have had white actors such as Laurence Olivier blacking up. While this won't be the case here, Topdog/Underdog features one character whiting up to make money as a sideshow attraction.

"Leann became really interested in Topdog/Underdog," says Raison. "It's an extraordinary piece about living on Skid Row, which ties in with Othello, as well as with Black History Month. Also, the slot that Topdog/ Underdog's in needs to be quite challenging, in the same way Claire Lizzimore did Tom Fool in. All of our studio shows over the last few years - Tom Fool, Liar, The Sound of My Voice - have been phenomenally successful, and all had an edginess.

"We also wanted our trainee director to not leave without doing a full show. With Othello, we're following on from Hamlet, who was played by Andy Clark. This time we've got him playing Iago, and we do feel like we've followed Andy's career from a early stage and now want to follow it through. What Guy liked about Othello is that it's incredibly linear, and has a real impetus to it."

For Cinderella, Raison and Hollands have invited Alan McHugh to pen a version of Cinderella that "won't be a pantomime. It's continuing the sort of niche that the Citizens has in Glasgow of doing a quality family show that's magical and which blows children's minds because they're so immersed in it. All I'll say to people about it is to wear their best shoes."

In terms of visiting companies, a stage version of cult 1970s horror film, The Wicker Man, will tour to the Citz following an Edinburgh Festival Fringe run. More pop culture references are to be found in David Benson's one-man show, To Be Frank, a warts and all study of troubled comedian Frankie Howerd, which will play as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, as will Jo Clifford's meditation on grieving, Leave To Remain. The magic carpet ride that is Maryam Hamidi and Catrin Evans' The Chronicles of Irania, first seen at The Arches in 2008, will also highlight the quirkier end of storytelling.

The absent Hollands' show, Museum Of Dreams, will revisit home turf prior to a full Scottish tour of this show about a lonely museum attendant, which features Ailie Cohen's puppetry.

To accompany the run of Othello, the Citizens Young Company will perform Lend Me Your Ears, a compendium of new material inspired by Shakespeare, while at the end of the year the Citizens Community Company will provide a second helping of Wicked Christmas. This grown-up festive fancy will unleash Cinders Revenge to unsuspecting Circle Studio audiences.

With these initiatives and others forming an increasingly significant part of the Citizens programmes, one wonders how they co-exist with the theatre's flagship shows.

"All these productions are becoming increasingly sophisticated," Raison says, "and some of the things that come out of them are really important.

"After one show which went to London, one of the actors was offered a scholarship to drama school. So there's a lot of talent there which you want to develop. There's a lot of stuff going on as well which people might not necessarily be aware of, like taking King Lear out to primary schools, and a Darwin project which we're working on. There's a project at Barlinnie and a host of other work," Raison says.

"You don't know straight away what effect any of this is having, but only recently someone said they'd seen a production of (Sue Glover's play) The Straw Chair, and that had changed the path of her life. So it's about using theatre to thrill or empower people, and that takes time."