The director of one of Scotland's leading theatre has announced he is standing down after an anniversary season.
Mark Thomson is to leave the Royal Lyceum Theatre in May next year, after the 50th anniversary season for the Edinburgh venue.
Thomson joined The Lyceum in 2003 and under his artistic leadership the company produced more than 90 productions of which 28 were world premieres.
He said: "I can't think of a more positive way to finish my time here at the Lyceum than celebrating its 50th anniversary season with the likes of Brian Cox and Bill Paterson, great Lyceum people like Tony Cownie, John Dove and Liz Lochhead and with exciting collaborations with the Lyric Hammersmith, Told by an Idiot and National Theatre of Scotland.
"It is so difficult to leave a place like this with its incredible, dedicated and skilful teams, creative buzz and intelligent audiences.
"However, it's absolutely time for a new adventure for me now just as I have always seen my time here as the constant refreshing of passion-led creative adventure for the artists and audiences in this extraordinary arena that celebrates theatre so vibrantly."
In October last year Thomson expressed his disappointment at a funding cut to the theatre by arts funding body Creative Scotland.
The Lyceum received a package of £3 million over three years - a reduction of 17.5 per cent.
He said: "It is a very damaging cut not only for The Lyceum but for producing theatre in Scotland.
"We are playing a vital role in sustaining a theatre industry in Scotland so this decision seems like a perverse punishment for acknowledged success. The Lyceum is now faced with re-thinking our business model in less than six months."
Shonaig Macpherson, chair of the Lyceum, said: "Mark has been a passionate and inspiring Artistic Director.
"His commitment to ensuring the company produced bold seasons of work, encompassing the great classics of the theatre canon alongside new plays commissioned by The Lyceum, provided our audiences with a rich repertoire of high quality theatre.
"Our recently announced 50th Anniversary Season is the embodiment of this commitment and is set to be a fitting testament to his vision.
"We will of course be sad to see Mark leave, but in announcing his decision now our succession plans should allow for a smooth transition into the next chapter of artistic leadership."
The search to find a new Artistic Director will begin later this month.
The theatre is expected to announce a successor by the autumn of this year.
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