A Glasgow theatre forced to close after the owners of their premises decided to develop the space into student flats has found a new home. Theatre 118, named after the company’s former premises at 118 Osborne Street in Glasgow’s city centre, looks set to reopen in a former office block in Port Dundas. With the venue set to launch in November, an opening programme of theatre, comedy and live poetry is already in place.
The volunteer run company has also secured a ten-year lease for the 4,500 square foot Payne Street building, enabling it to be able to plan ahead while providing a long-term home for what they describe as a growing community of artists and audiences.
With an emphasis on affordability, Theatre 118 aims to provide cheap access to the space for artists. For audiences they will operate a pay what you want scheme, with ticket prices starting from £3 for events at the 100 seat theatre the company is in the process of building.
Rehearsal space and offices will also form part of the new Theatre 118 in a building that at various points has been used as a plaster factory, offices, a nightclub and a place of worship. Theatre 118 aim to transcend the venue’s former lives to capture the DIY spirit of lost theatre spaces such as the Citizens Theatre’s 1960s experimental studio offshoot, The Close, as well as the labyrinthine arts lab that was The Arches. The early days of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and the Tron in Glasgow are also an inspiration.
As the future of other grassroots artspaces remain uncertain, by opening a brand new venue rooted in grassroots idealism, Theatre 118 is bucking the trend.
“When 118 closed, it just felt like we’d lost a lifeline,” says the company’s artistic director David Hewitson. “We’d built up this buzzing hub, and every week we were putting on new theatre and new shows. We had musicals and plays that we had to cancel. It was heartbreaking.”
For the new space, the aim is to develop a cultural hub that draws on those using it.
“I want artists to feel that they have permission to explore their wildest ideas,” says Hewitson, “and we can support them to get the show on its feet.”
Theatre 118 was founded in 2025 by Hewitson, Tom Brogan and others to provide a much-needed platform for grassroots theatre. In six months of operations, the company supported more than 400 artists, staged fourteen original in-house productions and hosted six touring productions. This was done without any public funding, and was supported by revenue generated from ticket sales.
The company’s Osborne Street premises was provided by Outer Spaces, the charity set up to provide free temporary studio space for artists in empty buildings in-between uses. Such arrangements are made on the proviso that the owners of the property can reclaim it at short notice. Theatre 118 and more than 90 other cultural tenants based in Osborne Street were given seven days notice to move out.
With the company’s Payne Street base owned by a private landlord, the new Theatre 118 will open to the public in November with a scratch night and a programme of new work. The year will end with a brand new pantomime, Sleeping Beauty and the New Republic of Port Dundas.
Further programming for 2027 will be announced soon. This will include Play of the Week, a season of brand new works that follows a similar model to A Play, a Pie and a Pint’s successful lunchtime theatre initiative.
A crowd funder has been launched to raise vital funds that will enable Theatre 118 to open its doors, and, more importantly, to keep them open.
“I don't see Theatre 118 as just an event space,” Logan says. “I see it as being a space where people will be in during the day or doing things early evening and late night. I think there's a lot of potential to get a lot of different things on, have a cultural hub and have lots of people who would never meet if they weren't coming to space.”
An egalitarian spirit is crucial to the Theatre 118 ethos.
“The ultimate ambition is for me that theatre should be affordable,” says Hewitson. “It should be possible for everyone to be able to go to the theatre, see exciting stuff, and see the newest, most interesting work happening in Scotland, without having to spend a lot of money.
"For the artists, it's about being on their side, supporting ideas, and making a space for them within the Scottish theatre scene. Even if you're a total unknown or someone who's unproven, you're not locked out of being a theatre maker and participating in making theatre.
"When we've got AI on the horizon, theatre is the most human art form there is. It's the most handmade experience imaginable. Glasgow has an appetite for that, and we're going to serve that appetite, create quality theatre, and do it in a fair way, and not be beholden to institutional barriers. Even if we don't get funding, we'll still find a way to make it work, and we'll find a way to deal with our community in a fair way, and to do it ethically.
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