Incoming Artistic Director announces eclectic, socially conscious line-up for 2025/26
Nadia Fall has announced her inaugural season as Artistic Director and CEO of the Young Vic, revealing a line-up that includes new interpretations of classic plays, bold contemporary work, and a commitment to underrepresented voices. Running from September 2025 to July 2026, the season features seven productions across the Main House and the Maria Studio, with six directors making their Young Vic debut.
Fall takes over from Kwame Kwei-Armah, who stepped down in 2023 after five years at the helm. Kwei-Armah’s tenure was marked by critically acclaimed productions and a focus on broadening the theatre’s reach. Fall’s return to the Young Vic, where she previously directed The Suicide and Home, signals a renewed emphasis on political relevance and formal experimentation.
“It’s a season that invites us to hold a mirror up to ourselves and see the unflinching truth about who we really are.”
Nadia Fall
Born to Indian parents and raised in London, Fall trained at Goldsmiths and the National Theatre Studio. Her early career included work at the National Theatre, where she was Associate Director. Prior to joining the Young Vic, she served as Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Stratford East, where her productions often drew from real-life testimonies and explored themes of social justice, inequality, and identity. Known for her use of documentary-style storytelling and an emphasis on community engagement, Fall has established herself as a director deeply committed to both craft and impact.
A Season Rooted in Urgency and Experiment
The season opens with Fall directing Entertaining Mr Sloane, Joe Orton’s 1964 satire that continues to unsettle with its blend of suburban menace and dark comedy. Tamzin Outhwaite and Daniel Cerqueira star as siblings Kath and Ed, whose affections for a mysterious lodger spiral into manipulation and violence. Fall describes the play as “audacious,” noting that it “pokes fun at our incessant dog-eat-dog nature and remains downright shocking.”
In December, Omar Elerian directs the European premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, a surreal, high-octane reflection on the psychological cost of war. David Threlfall leads the cast as a spectral tiger who roams the streets of post-invasion Baghdad. The play was previously a Pulitzer Prize finalist and is known for blending dark humour with political critique.
Other Main House offerings include a revival of Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass, directed by Jordan Fein and set in 1930s Brooklyn during the rise of European fascism. Alexander Zeldin contributes CARE, a new play developed from his earlier French-language piece, Une Mort dans la Famille. Known for his deeply naturalistic style, Zeldin’s new work examines life inside a care home and the fragile networks of family and institutional support that surround it.
The Maria Studio Offers Intimacy and Innovation
Alongside the Main House season, Fall is reviving the Young Vic’s Maria Studio as a home for more experimental and intimate work. The space will host three productions: Ohio, Museum of Austerity, and Sting.
Ohio, by real-life couple Abigail and Shaun Bengson, is an autobiographical gig-theatre piece exploring faith, loss, and hearing impairment. Directed by Caitlin Sullivan, it merges indie-folk music with storytelling and creative captioning.
Museum of Austerity, an immersive installation by Sacha Wares in collaboration with journalist John Pring, brings together theatre and virtual reality to document the real-life impacts of the UK’s austerity measures on disabled people. Visitors navigate a mixed-reality gallery while listening to verbatim testimonies.
Sting, the debut play from Peggy Ramsay and Sonia Friedman Prize-winner Sophie Swithinbank, will be directed by Nancy Medina. It tells the story of a young woman entangled in a toxic relationship and caught in the crosshairs of institutional misogyny.
“Behind closed doors, beyond curated online profiles, and painted smiles: it’s an interrogation of who we are, at our core.”
Artist Development and Local Roots
The season also marks the return of the JMK Award, which offers an emerging director the chance to stage a production in the Maria Studio. The Young Vic’s commitment to development continues through its Creator’s Program and Taking Part initiative, which engages local communities in Southwark and Lambeth.
Fall has long advocated for making theatre that is both artistically ambitious and socially grounded. During her time at Stratford East, she was known for staging politically resonant work that often drew from real-world testimonies. At the Young Vic, that approach appears set to continue, with a season preoccupied by systemic failures, resilience, and the shifting nature of identity.
In a statement accompanying the announcement, Fall said: “We have seven wildly different works across our Main House and The Maria Studio, which journey from the shady underbelly of the London suburbs to the chaos of Baghdad after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. We will time travel to Brooklyn in 1938 where fascism is on the rise in Europe, on to a residential care home for a tender and surprisingly joyful look at life in our winter years, before returning to the streets of our metropolis for an eerily modern tale involving misogyny within the MET Police.”
She continued: “It’s a season that invites us to hold a mirror up to ourselves and see the unflinching truth about who we really are. Behind closed doors, beyond curated online profiles, and painted smiles: it’s an interrogation of who we are, at our core.”
With her first season, Fall sets out a clear vision: contemporary in theme, formally innovative, and rooted in the complexities of modern life. As she steps into this new role, the Young Vic looks set to remain a theatre deeply engaged with the world around it.
Featured Image: Nadia Fall (Isha Shah)
By
By
By
