Young Vic appoints Nadia Fall as artistic director

Nadia Fall has been appointed artistic director of the Young Vic in London.

The current Theatre Royal Stratford East boss replaces Kwame Kwei-Armah and will also be the venue’s joint chief executive, with executive director Lucy Davies.

She will join the organisation in January 2025, having been at TRSE since 2017.

Fall said: “The Young Vic was first built as a pop-up theatre for a younger, bolder generation of artists and audiences. 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. The Young Vic is not afraid to ask the difficult questions, and it’s particularly exciting to me that its audiences have an appetite for that provocation."

She added: “I was born in Southwark and raised in and around the borough as well as the Middle East, to South Asian parents, and I love that the Young Vic holds hands with its local community of Southwark and Lambeth while looking out towards the rest of the world through its artists and stories. It’s exactly who we are in London – both local and international. I am thrilled to be leading the team at a theatre where I was first taken into the fold as a young student director when associate artistic director Sue Emmas watched the first night of the very first show I ever directed in a pub theatre in Kennington. It’s one of life’s full circle moments and I cannot wait to get started.”

At Stratford East, her programming includes a revival of Equus, which transferred to the West End in her first season, and August Wilson’s King Hedley II starring Lenny Henry, which she also directed.

As associate at the National Theatre, she wrote and directed HOME, and directed productions including Chewing Gum Dreams, written and performed by Michaela Coel.

Young Vic chair Glenn Earle said: “I am thrilled that Nadia will join us as our next artistic director and joint chief executive alongside Lucy Davies, our brilliant executive director. 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."

Fall trained in directing at Goldsmiths College, University of London and on the National Theatre Studio’s directors programme.