Director: National Theatre of Scotland must not be monopolised by Glasgow

READ MORE: Artistic director of National Theatre of Scotland, Laurie Sansom, to leave after three years

And he admitted that six months into the post he realised that the National Theatre of Scotland structure needed to "evolve".

Mr Sansom said: "I am sure that the next part of the journey for the NTS is reviewing again how it remains truly national.

"That is going to be important, when it has got a new home [Rockvilla] in Glasgow, which is not a performance space but a creation centre.

"It is going to be even more important that we don’t become the 'National Theatre of Glasgow' – I don’t think that will ever happen, because right at the heart of the company’s mission is to take work as far afield as possible in Scotland, and to work with communities, and make participatory work."

The National Theatre of Scotland unveiled plans for a new £5.8m headquarters in Glasgow last year.

The base at Speirs Wharf will feature one of the largest rehearsal rooms in Scotland, space for technical and costume production and community drama.

Combining the role of artistic director, director and chief executive of the NTS posed difficulties Mr Sansom said, while admitting that he is leaving to become an "independent theatre artist".

The NTS has already said it will "put a senior leadership structure to take the company into its second exciting decade".

Mr Sansom acknowledged that three years in the post was a “short” tenure, succeeding founding artistic director Vicky Featherstone.

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He added: "I am really proud of having taken the company through what’s really a transitional period, and it was always going to be [that] I think.

"I think it was always going to be challenging for anybody I think, taking it on, its identity and the way it was set up were so idiosyncratic. "What’s been fantastic is that the work has been really strong.

"With the new building, I feel like there is going to be a fresh era, a new way perhaps of organising itself."

He said the NTS, funded by the Scottish Government, would have to rethink its business model as "there won't be more public money, the likelihood is that there will be less."

Mr Sansom added: "I think the company will need to look at how it organises itself.

"Certainly in my three years, we’ve done some really big and ambitious projects and at the same time it's time for me to spend more time in the rehearsal room, more time doing work.

"The way the company is organised at the moment, with my position being chief executive, artistic director and director, that wasn’t possible.

He said he was looking forward to "not having the pressures and the challenges of not managing a big team, leading the business part of the company at the same time".

Mr Sansom said the board of the theatre company, led by Dame Seona Reid, needs to "reflect on the kind of leadership it needs."

He said the company had to be led by an artistic director.

He added: "I think that is pretty sacred and it is what has led to the company making some extraordinary and unusual work."

Mr Sansom said the initial reactions to The 306: Dawn - a moving work about World War One soldiers executed by the British army for desertion - had been “overwhelming".

It is part of a trilogy of plays, he said, and hoped it will one day be staged in another location.

“It’s been great - at the end of the show there’s a hushed silence with the unmistakable sounds of sniffles and tears," he said.

"What we’ve tried to create really is a place to contemplate and commemorate these memories, and because the score is so beautiful it is really hard to not to be emotionally affected."

The play, written by Oliver Emmanuel and composed by Gareth Williams, is a co-production with Perth Theatre. 

It tells the tale of three soldiers who were executed by firing squad: Harry Farr, Joseph Stones and a Scot, Joseph Byers.

Little is known about Byers, Emmanuel said, apart from that he was Scottish, volunteered in November 1914 and was executed for desertion in February 1915.

For research, Emmanuel and Williams travelled to the Somme and visited the war graves there.

The writer added: "I've often felt overawed by the responsibility to Harry, Willie and Joe but never doubted the vital importance of remembering their stories."

The only document linked to Byers is his will. It is in the National Records of Scotland and says: "In the event of my death, I give the whole of my stuff to my sister Nellie Murray."

Sansom added: "I very rarely get affected by plays I have directed myself, but I cannot help be affected by this because we are telling the story of three young men who were executed for cowardice.

"And you know from the moment the show starts what is going to happen to them, and interestingly the process of the show is not about finding what happens at the end, but about going on that journey and baring witness to that story, because they are three true stories.

"It is about empathising with the human stories: not just of the men but their families, of the firing squads, the people making the decisions and trying to understand better why this tragedy happened.”

Sansom said he hoped it could be shown elsewhere.

He said: “When I got inside the work, it really did not feel like a work for the proscenium arch stage. It just didn’t call out for that for me.

"Because the men were all kept in barns before their executions, it felt like that was the theme to do – to take people out to a place, and create a different kind of experience.

"It almost feels like a sacred place, where this ritual is played out with the audiences as a witness.”

“We are here in a barn in Perth, but it could be performed anywhere. Maybe when parts 2 and 3, it could maybe be in a different space.”