The National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) will be a key voice in the debate over the country's political future, its new artistic director has declared.
Laurie Sansom, 40, made his comments after he was last night unveiled as Vicky Featherstone's successor.
The Cambridge graduate, who joins from a similar role at the Royal & Derngate theatres in Northampton, said the 2014 independence referendum and Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will be key features of his tenure at the NTS.
Although the company, which is funded directly by the Scottish Government, will not "take a political position", Mr Sansom, from Kent, hopes it can form a stage for different views on the vote and its consequences.
"One of the theatre's great strengths is that it provides a forum for alternative views and opinions, and while it is important the company itself does not have a position, I think it can provide a fertile environment for artists to respond to the events in any way they want," he said.
"Exploring the ideas of cultural identity is something that theatre is really good at doing and I think it's imperative that the NTS is able to embrace a whole range of opinions."
Mr Sansom has directed several productions at the Edinburgh festival, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 2009, has visited Scotland since he was 11, and will move to Glasgow, where he has also worked at the Royal Conservatoire, next March.
Following Ms Featherstone, he said, would be a difficult task but he will build on the foundations she and her team laid, especially the theatre's concept of a "theatre without walls".
Mr Sansom said his nationality and lack of background in Scottish theatre was "both an advantage and a disadvantage" and he would provide a "fresh pair of eyes".
"The board told me that they were only interested in picking the best candidate available, and I am flattered that they thought that was me," he said.
"I am sure there will be some who will comment on me not being Scottish, but I think as long as I am doing the best work I can, as long as the theatre is doing the best for Scottish artists, then you can begin to ignore those voices."
Ms Featherstone leaves her post in December to join the Royal Court Theatre in London, and Mr Sansom will be in Scotland this winter to be part of the handover before she departs.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article