Young Vic Theatre

Young Vic Theatre, producing theatre, London. The current Young Vic is the second company of that name: the first was founded in 1945 under George Devine as part of the Old Vic Drama School with the intention of presenting plays (featuring adult actors) aimed at young people. The company, whose first production was The King Stag by Carlo Gozzi, closed after about six years due to financial difficulties.

The second company was formed as an offshoot of the National Theatre in 1970 under the direction of Frank Dunlop, as an alternative to the conventional theatre: in Dunlop’s own words, “informal, democratic, cheap, circus-like”, and particularly directed at young people. A new theatre was built out of breeze blocks on a bomb site situated in The Cut, Waterloo, close to the Old Vic, incorporating a disused butcher’s shop as a foyer. The opening production in 1970 was Scapino, a commedia dell'arte-style adaptation of the Molière farce Les Fourberies de Scapin, with a company that included Jim Dale, Jane Lapotaire, Nicky Henson, and Anna Carteret.

Notable productions staged at the theatre have included Waiting for Godot (1970) by Samuel Beckett, the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1972) by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1973) by Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1976), Ghosts (1986) and An Enemy of the People (1988) by Henrik Ibsen, The Last Yankee (1993) by Arthur Miller, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1998) by John Ford, and Hamlet (2001) directed by Peter Brook.

The Young Vic company became independent of the National Theatre in 1974, and a studio space (seating around 100) and Youth Theatre were added in the 1980s. The theatre building, which has a flexible stage with an auditorium seating from 450 to 525, closed in July 2004 for rebuilding work. The new theatre is expected to open in 2006.