MORNA Young smiles as she chats about her latest stage appearance, starring in A Word with Dr Johnson.

We come to the detail of her part in the play later, in which Samuel “Dictionary” Johnson travels north to explore three new languages in the company of biographer James Boswell.

But what re-routes the conversation is Morna’s revelation that she in fact retired as an actress a couple of years ago.

And when she rewinds on her own life, her subsequent journey is almost as fascinating a tale as that of Johnson himself.

Morna, who grew up in Burghead, a small fishing village in the north east, trained as a journalist before turning to acting.

But how could someone switch, you wonder? Journalism, after all, is a calling?

“I was always interested in arts subjects at school, and English in particular,” she says, smiling. “But I was heavily discouraged.”

This was in spite of Morna revealing a real violin talent at the age of seven.

However, as a teenager chose a compromise. Journalism seemed at least a step in the right direction.

“I was accepted to study Journalism at the University of Sheffield, back in 2002 and worked in a trendy London mag and a radio station.

“But immediately after college I went to drama school in London. It wasn’t that I didn’t like journalism, I just wanted more. I loved writing and researching, which I don’t think is a million miles away from what I do now.”

But the creative writing process is very different from showing off on stage?

“Would you call it showing off,” she counters, grinning.

Yes, for the purposes of being evocative. But the point remains; it’s a very different direction.

“Mmm. I think it all comes from the same place. I’ve always been creative, even as a kid when I attended the Sunday church-run theatre group. And as an actor you start with the research of your character. It’s a very similar process.”

But having established herself as an actor, Morna then moved onto becoming a playwright, via short stories and a hopeful novel.

“It took the move away from home and journalism to get me to the next place,” she says, grinning. “And I began to find my own voice.”

Was acting not what she hoped it to be? “Yes, and no. A couple of years ago I decided I would retire from acting. Part of the reason was I was now writing plays, creating theatre and making music.

“And acting wasn’t offering me the creativity I needed. I re-evaluated what I wanted to do, which is taking the spark of an idea and then developing it, into whatever form it takes.

“That’s really what I wanted to do as a kid, yet could never have imagined it happening.”

Morna’s playwriting, very often using Scots’ language, has been terrifically successful. She won the New Playwrights Award 2014 (Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland). Her plays such as Netting and Lost At Sea have received critical acclaim.

“You learn lessons not by achieving but by failing,” she says smiling.

“I had to take chances. And what’s the worst that can happen?”

She adds, smiling; “I’ve been poor many times before. If I’m poor again, so what?”

Having made a successful journey into playwriting - and not being destitute - offered Morna an ease with which to re-think her views on acting.

“I was teased back into acting when Joyce Falconer had to pull out of my own play, Netting, last year,” she says. “Then followed Celtic: The Musical.” (She also plays with the band, Folkify at the Tron Theatre.)

When offered the role in Dr Johnson, James Runcie’s sequel to last year’s play, which focuses on the famous journey to the Western Isles of 1773, Morna found it hard to say no.

“It’s set thirty years on, and it’s great and playful,” she says. “I get to play a range of characters in this ‘literary panto’, from wifies to barmaids, and even a horse. How can that not be a great challenge?”

• A Word with Dr Johnson also features Simon Donaldson, Lewis Howden and Gerda Stevenson, Oran Mor, until Saturday.