“I look back on my time at the Tron with enormous fondness and a lot of pride. It took about five years to build up a head of steam. After that we couldn’t go wrong. Everything we touched while I was at the Tron seemed to work. It was where I found my voice as a director.”

[ Michael Boyd talking to The Herald 2022]

The visionary work of Michael Boyd put the Tron Theatre on the map, both nationally and internationally. His unforgettable productions included Ted Hughes’ Crow, Janice Galloway’s novel The Trick Is To Keep Breathing and Macbeth with Iain Glen. These shows, and many more, live on in the hearts and minds of Scottish audiences.

Under Michael’s leadership, the Tron became a home for Scottish theatre artists. He welcomed and encouraged actors such as Forbes Masson, Peter Mullan, Siobhan Redmond, Alan Cumming, writers such as David Kane, Peter Arnott and Chris Hannan and composer Craig Armstrong.

At the same time, Michael developed international collaborations with Russia and Quebec. His productions of Michel Tremblay’s The Guid Sisters and The Real Wurld? toured internationally and began a Scottish-Quebecois cultural relationship that still exists today.

A huge fan of Scottish variety, Michael began the tradition of the famous Tron Theatre pantomime, initially commissioning Craig Ferguson, Peter Capaldi, Forbes Masson and Alan Cumming to write and perform in them. He was very happy that this tradition still flourishes, forty years after he arrived as Artistic Director.

Michael died in August 2023. To celebrate and remember him, we have invited Michael’s long-term artistic collaborator, Tom Piper and his partner, Caroline Hall to curate an exhibition of his work.

Exhibition runs 16 JUNE 2025 – 4 JANUARY 2026 in the Tron Theatre public areas.

Large print version of the exhibition interpretation panels available here.

_{Image credit: Alan Wylie}