The Young Vic, one of London’s foremost theatres, has appointed Nadia Fall as its new artistic director, succeeding Kwame Kwei-Armah. Fall, who currently runs Theatre Royal Stratford East, will join the organisation in January and also become the Young Vic’s joint chief executive alongside Lucy Davies.
Fall said she was thrilled to be returning to the theatre “where I was first taken into the fold as a young student director”. She said the Young Vic was “not afraid to ask the difficult questions, and it’s particularly exciting to me that its audiences have an appetite for that provocation”.
The Young Vic, established as an offshoot to the illustrious Old Vic in 1970, “was first built as a pop-up theatre for a younger, bolder generation of artists and audiences,” she added. “Today it is a celebrated cornerstone of London theatre but that mischievous spirit of a makeshift, anti-establishment theatre still courses through its veins, and I find that incredibly compelling.”
Fall was born to south Asian parents in Southwark and raised in and around the borough as well as in the Middle East. “I love that the Young Vic holds hands with its local community of Southwark and Lambeth whilst looking out towards the rest of the world through its artists and stories,” she said. “It’s exactly who we are in London – both local and international.”
Fall joined Stratford East as artistic director in 2017. Landmark productions during her tenure include Ned Bennett’s revival of Peter Shaffer’s Equus; David Harris’s Tambo & Bones, directed by Matthew Xia; and August Wilson’s King Hedley II starring Lenny Henry, which she directed. Her previous productions as a director at the National Theatre, where she was an associate, included Chewing Gum Dreams by Michaela Coel and Inua Ellams’ adaptation of Three Sisters. Her debut feature film Brides, written by Suhayla El-Bushra, is in post-production.
Glenn Earle, chair of the board, said: “Nadia has a proven and long-standing record not only of theatre leadership, but also of significant artistic success, at the National Theatre, at Stratford East and as a freelance director. Critically, Nadia also shares our core Young Vic values of commitment to community and to broadening access to theatre and creative education.”
Kwei-Armah will direct his final production, A Face in the Crowd, featuring original songs by Elvis Costello, in September. When he announced he was stepping down earlier this year, Kwei-Armah called for “sincere government intervention” to help a sector that is still recovering from the pandemic and faces cuts to arts funding. “The painful reality is I am leaving a subsidised sector where 13 years of standstill funding is taking its toll,” he said.
Fall’s appointment comes after a whirlwind series of changes at the top of major theatres including new bosses for the National Theatre, Royal Court and Donmar Warehouse. Last month, it was announced that Selina Cartmell will become creative director at Manchester’s Royal Exchange and last week Nathan Powell was named as the new creative director at Liverpool’s Everyman and Playhouse theatres.
