Recognised to be among the top regional theatres in the UK, it plays to an average audience of over 70,000 people a year attracting a very broad cross-section of the local population in terms of age and occupation.

He approached the Dundee Dramatic Society, an amateur company, who, also faced with nowhere to perform had recently purchased their own premises in the form of a disused jute mill.

Eventually a temporary refuge was found in the converted former Dudhope Church on the Lochee Road of Dundee although the company remained at the venue for a further 18 years.

Work began in January 1979 under the leadership of Robert Robertson who had been artistic director for a number of years and who was instrumental in overseeing the building and completion of the new theatre.

A public appeal was launched which raised a massive £60,000 in under six weeks, reaching an eventual total of £200,000 outstripping all possible expectations, in a city that was then in the midst of economic recession.

In 1996 it received the prestigious TMA Martini Award for the Best Overall Production in the UK and in September 1999 it opened its doors to one of the most ambitious experiments in Scottish Theatre for many years – a permanent company of 14 actors.

In 2005, it visited the prestigious Cerventino Festival in Mexico with a new version of Jarry's Ubu the King and in 2006 it took David Greig's Dr Korzcak's Example to Tokyo and Hiroshima.

The Rep also commissions playwrights to create new works and translate and adapt classical texts, making it relevant to Scotland's contemporary cultural and social climate.

Panton suggested that a newly built theatre should be able to seat 800 to 1000 people (as opposed to the current building's capacity of about 400) and have greater flexibility to be able to house different sizes of audience.

The Rep Ensemble has won numerous awards and continues to further the ambition Hamish Glen had for the project, with performances in 2011 of The Rise & Fall of Little Voice and Anna Karenina.

In 1962, Lynn Redgrave appeared in Ben Travers' Rookery Nook, and as Portia in The Merchant of Venice, which also featured Steven Berkoff and Dundee-born Brian Cox who has gone on to play many roles in TV productions and Hollywood films.

In the mid-1960s, a stable repertory company including Jill Gascoine, Vivien Heilbron, Charmian May and Stephen Yardley saw short seasons from visiting actors James Bolam and Michael York.

Other alumni include Miriam Margolyes, Joanna Lumley, Geoffrey Hayes (beloved of British TV-viewers as the host of cult children's show Rainbow), and Hannah Gordon.

[11] Ncuti Gatwa, who would go on and play the Fifteenth Doctor, started his career and was granted a position in a graduate scheme, at the Dundee Rep in 2013 where he went on to perform in several roles including one in David Greig's Victoria.

[14][15] They include programmes and photographs of stars such as Joanna Lumley, Michael York, David Tennant and Gregor Fisher performing at the theatre.