The Lyceum's James Brining on the cost crisis in Scottish theatre
In spite of the recent funding boost from Creative Scotland, increased costs still mean that theatres have to work hard to balance the books, says the Lyceum’s new director James Brining. Interview by Joyce McMillan
When James Brining was appointed to succeed David Greig as artistic director of Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre, just 13 months ago, the chair of the theatre’s board, Tari Lang, waxed lyrical. “Throughout a rigorous recruitment process,” she said, “James shone with his wealth of experience, both artistically and as a seasoned CEO”; and indeed, it’s hard to imagine a candidate better qualified for the job, as Brining leads the company through his first season in Edinburgh.
Six years between 1997 and 2003 as director of the Citizens’ based young people’s touring company TAG, a hugely successful decade from 2003-13 as leader of Dundee Rep, and then in 2013 a return to his home city of Leeds to run the huge Leeds Playhouse complex - surviving both a major rebuilding project and the pandemic, and directing a series of blockbusting musical hits to rival his mighty Dundee success, Sunshine On Leith - make him one of the most experienced and successful theatre directors in the UK, outside London; and he has also played a key role, over the years, in the backroom committee work that helped to create institutions like the Scottish Playwrights’ Studio and the National Theatre of Scotland, and to shape Scotland’s 21st century theatre landscape.
At 57, though, Brining remains something of a youthful happy warrior, facing the challenges of running a producing theatre in 21st century Britain with a mix of radical idealism and hard-headed business sense rarely seen in Scottish theatre since the great days of Giles Havergal at the Citizens’ Theatre.
“I think it was fantastic for me to leave the Scottish theatre scene for a while”, says Brining, “and the whole family had a terrific time in Leeds; but we always wanted to come back at some point. I love Scotland, I’m married to an Orkney woman, and I feel that through the jobs I’ve done, I’ve come to know almost every corner of the place, over the years.
“And I also love Edinburgh. Despite all the Edinburgh-Schmedinburgh chat that goes on in other parts of Scotland, it is the stunningly beautiful capital city of a wonderful country, with a fantastic international profile; and I just want to build the strongest possible connection between this theatre and the people of Edinburgh, and then on to Scotland’s national theatre scene. For me, since my earliest days at TAG, it’s always been about the audience, first and foremost; and I think the biggest threat facing the Lyceum, in the future, is that it just doesn’t make and present work that engages enough people, across all Edinburgh’s communities, and across Scotland.”
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Brining is a realist, though, about the scale of the task. Edinburgh’s theatre environment is fiercely competitive , with the 3,000-seat Playhouse and 1,700 seat Festival Theatre hoovering up audiences, and the King’s Theatre set to reopen next summer. The 630 seat Lyceum is a small space by comparison, and one of which many people in Edinburgh seem barely aware, as they pass by on their way to big shows at the Playhouse, or mega-concerts at Murrayfield.
Brining has, though, put together a 2025-26 programme that he describes as a “declaration of intent”, beginning last month with his own powerful production of Chekhov’s The Seagull - “we need people to know that we will be producing those great classic texts, to the highest possible standard,” he says - and ranging on through a Christmas version of Cinderella, to David Greig’s new stage musical version of the famously schmalzy Edinburgh-set love story One Day, and the stage premier of Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil, based on Ron Ferguson’s much-loved book about football and community in Fife.
“There’s no escaping the fact that the theatre environment has completely changed in the last 25 years,” says Brining. “Even with this year’s hugely welcome increase in Creative Scotland funding - which puts us in a far better position than many theatres in England, outside London - costs have increased so dramatically that every theatre still has to work hard to find a business model that works for it, and balances the books.
“That means much more co-production and collaboration, as well as more seizing of commercial opportunities whenever they arise, and a constant effort to keep the theatre open and busy most of the time. Every dark evening is a lost opportunity; and that’s why, although it’s absolutely vital that the Lyceum remains a premier producing theatre, our programme of visiting shows and one-night events - evenings with stars like Sam Heughan and David Tennant, stand-up comedy, music - is also vitally important to attract new and different audiences into the building, at all times.
“And then in June,” adds Brining, “we’re going to do something called Lyceum At Home, which is about the Lyceum coming to your home. We’re commissioning four monologues from four Edinburgh writers, and we’re going to take them out for performance anywhere you want them, across the city - book groups, care homes, or just you and your friends in your living room.
“Because in the end, no matter how beautiful or historic our theatre buildings, no matter how much time we have to spend getting the finances straight, this is what it’s all about - this deep human impulse to gather round the campfire, and share stories together.
“These days, when so much our culture is mediated through screens and algorithms, it’s a radical act in itself, to bring people together - hopefully across very different backgrounds - to share a story that is being told and reimagined in front of them, and to understand that we are a community, facing the big issues of life together. In everything we produce and present, we have to keep that radical impulse alive; and to keep reaching out to the widest possible range of people, across all the communities of Edinburgh, and beyond.”
For more details of the Lyceum Theatre’s 2025-26 season, see www.lyceum.org.uk
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