David Greig is the politest of playwrights, a soft-spoken, intelligent, considerate kind of man. He is not given to swearing. Which makes it surprising that his greatest fear is being caught effing and blinding like someone suffering from Tourette’s.

“I often wonder if I’ll get caught one day accidentally leaving my mobile phone turned on in my pocket,” says the 36-year-old North Queensferry writer. “I’m terrified that what someone would hear is me walking down the street doing this low-level, old-mannish swearing.”

His fear stems from his latest work, translating the famously filthy Ubu the King, a play so ribald it nearly caused a riot on its debut in France in 1896 — of which more later. For the moment, we can rest assured that he won’t cause offence at any of the many prestigious events in his busy autumn schedule.

These include a stage adaptation of Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin, an RSC tour of his play The American Pilot and the launch of the inaugural programme of the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS), where Greig is employed as dramaturg.

The launch takes place on Tuesday in Glasgow and will be attended by the culture minister, Patricia Ferguson. Vicky Featherstone, the artistic director and a longtime colleague of Greig, will announce the NTS’s hotly anticipated first season.

Featherstone, previously of the theatre company Paines Plough, is expected to give details of a remarkable opening night when several site-specific productions will take place around the country at the same time. She will also name the writers and directors of the large number of shows that the NTS will be producing for the rest of 2006 on a budget of £7.5m for two years.

“The launch is going to be incredibly surprising,” says Greig. “I’m excited by everything in the programme. But part of me also wants to say, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’, because in five years’ time, that’s when you’ll really see where we’re going.”

Greig sees his NTS job as being an extra pair of eyes and ears, with a roving brief to support the work of the new organisation at all levels. The role of dramaturg has never been fully understood in Britain, but, broadly, he will fulfil the functions of a literary manager plus a bit more.

The NTS has a responsibility for everything from children’s theatre to the classics and Greig is expected to have an overview of Scottish theatre at large, as well as working in detail on individual productions.

“I’m not involved in the day-to-day running of the company, so my thoughts come from a different angle,” he says. “I’m someone who’s available to speak to, but I’m lucky because I can be irresponsible — people don’t have to listen to me, so the ideas I have can be more free, eccentric and wide-ranging.

“I hope to help the NTS look at the totality of Scottish theatre. It’s not about simply firing out 20 play commissions and seeing what comes back. That would be destructive. We’re looking at all the creative artists and giving them support so that the journey they’re on can be the best possible.”

Many writers would be nervous about being so directly involved with the work of others, but Greig, whose plays have taken inspiration from Ibsen, Brecht, Rattigan and Wilder, finds it fascinating.

“I like engaging with other writers,” he says. “I am inspired and influenced by their art. I don’t like the competitive instincts in theatre. Perhaps naively, I think we are all part of the same gang and working to the same purpose, which is to produce extraordinary theatre.

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