Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd’hui 29 (2017) 243–255 brill.com/sbt Beckett at the Young Vic From the Marginal to the Major-Marginal Matthew McFrederick Teaching Fellow in Theatre, University of Reading, uk [email protected] Abstract This article will examine the formative years of the Young Vic in London when pro- ductions of Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Happy Days were staged and embraced by a new generation of theatregoers and practitioners in a metropolitan theatre that began at the edge of the city’s mainstream theatre culture. Through a range of archival resources and an interview with the Young Vic’s founding director, this essay will dis- cuss the reception of these performances and their ability to engage with young audi- ences. It will conclude by tracing the YoungVic’s more recent association with Beckett’s drama, as the theatre has grown into an independent force competing with larger, tra- ditional theatre institutions. Résumé Cet article évoque la formation du Young Vic à Londres, plus précisément les années où y ont été réalisées les mises en scène d’En attendant Godot, de Fin de partie et de Oh les beaux jours pour une nouvelle génération de spectateurs ou de gens du théâtre, immédiatement convaincus, dans un théâtre métropolitain mais qui avait débuté en marge de la culture théâtrale traditionnelle. À partir d’un grand nombre d’archives, d’un interview du directeur et fondateur du Young Vic, cet essai traitera de l’accueil qu’ont rencontré ces spectacles et de leur capacité à intéresser les jeunes publics. Il évoquera pour finir l’association plus récente du Young Vic avec les pièces de Beckett, maintenant que ce théâtre est devenu une force indépendante, concurrente des institutions de théâtre plus importantes—et plus traditionnelles. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/18757405-02902003Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 12:56:52AM via free access 244 mcfrederick Keywords Young Vic – Frank Dunlop – marginal – metropolitan – theatre cultures – audiences On 13 April 2015, Andrew Dickson wrote in The Guardian: When the shortlist for this year’s Olivier theatre awards was announced in early March, there was only one story in town: London’s Young Vic. The theatre secured a remarkable 11 nominations, more than ever before, spanning nearly every major category. Powerhouses such as the National Theatre and the Royal Court were almost nowhere to be seen. […] Fifteen years ago, some wondered whether the Young Vic could survive. Now it is impossible to imagine the British theatre scene without it. Dickson’s commentary outlines the present day standing of the Young Vic; a theatre renowned for its recent array of celebrated, sell out productions, glam- orous casting and West End transfers. These have made the Young Vic the envy of many London theatres, where it currently holds an elevated reputation, holding its own against the city’s major theatrical institutions and the com- mercial theatre sector. Today the YoungVic does not spring to mind as a theatre at the margins, though it began at the margins through its cultural and social geographies, its inter-institutional dependence, and also through its intentions to offer a theatrical home for neglected audiences and dramas of the late 1960s. During these early years, Samuel Beckett’s drama played an integral role in its programming, and has subsequently been staged at key moments over the the- atre’s forty-five year history. Young Vic at the Margins | Beckett at the Margins Writing this history today highlights how the Young Vic and its surrounding areas have been transformed since its inception. As Jen Harvie asserts in The- atre & the City, “cities are ever-changing geographical, architectural, political and social structures where most people live and work densely gathered in extremely complex social structures” (6). Since 1970, the Young Vic has expe- rienced the ever-changing aspects of urban life, through its home along The Cut—south of the Thames on the border of the Lambeth and Southwark bor- oughs. Early proposals discussed the idea of locating the theatre close to the Covent Garden Flower Market and near London’s central cultural districts, but Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd’huiDownloaded from 29 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2017) 243–255 12:56:52AM via free access beckett at the young vic 245 the YoungVic’s separation from London’s mainstream theatre sector was epito- mised by its geographical position. The theatre was initially erected on The Cut as a temporary building around the shell of an old butcher shop on a former bombsite, in what was a largely marginalised quarter of London in 1970. It had not experienced regeneration after World War ii, and suffered from high levels of deprivation, unemployment and crime, as well as poor educational stan- dards. This once largely disregarded locale has since underwent a resurgence, evolving into a vibrant, cultural quarter. Furthermore, its emergence in South London preceded the rebirth of the nearby Southbank area through other cul- tural institutions such as the National Theatre (nt), the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre. When the Young Vic opened, it had a subsidiary relationship to London’s largest subsidised theatre—the nt—then housed close by at the Old Vic, and under the directorship of Laurence Olivier.1 Plans for the theatre developed out of an absence of young theatregoers in London during the 1960s, as its major theatres operated with a commercial ethos staging mainstream plays or musicals. These shortcomings within the sector were recognised in the 1965 Arts Council’s Young People’s Theatre Enquiry (reported in 1966) led by Constance Cummings, which highlighted how young theatregoers were inade- quately served by theatres offering expensive tickets for a largely older bour- geois audience. In the same year the report was announced, Olivier met an energetic theatre director called Frank Dunlop. Dunlop had previously founded the Piccolo Theatre in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1954 with Richard Negri and became Artistic Director of the Nottingham Playhouse before founding Pop Theatre, which initially ran during the Edinburgh Festival. It was through his work with Pop—a company that offered cheap tickets to younger audiences— that Dunlop captured the attention of Olivier, as its inaugural production, The Winter’s Tale, travelled to Brighton, where they met with Joan Plowright, who suggested Dunlop would be “the ideal man to […] start a National Theatre for Children” (qtd. in Rosenthal, 159). Dunlop later joined the nt as an Associate Director and Administrator after Olivier promised him he could “build a theatre for young people.”2 Olivier recognised the need for this type of theatre following further internal assessments into the nt’s operations, identifying three specific limitations in a letter to the Minister of the Arts, Jennie Lee, on 29 January 1969: 1 The original ‘Young Vic Company’ was set up by George Devine following World War ii under the provisions of the Old Vic Theatre School established by Devine, Michel St Denis and Glen Byam Shaw. It aimed to produce classics for young people aged from nine to fifteen. 2 This quote from Frank Dunlop and all subsequent quotes are taken from a telephone inter- view between Matthew McFrederick and Dunlop on 5 November 2015. Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd’hui 29 (2017) 243–255Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 12:56:52AM via free access 246 mcfrederick 1. We are not paying nearly enough attention to young audiences. […] 2. We have no room in our programmes, in our theatre, workshops or in our planning, for the proper consideration of experimental work that any National Theatre should have. 3. Lastly, and I think most importantly, I am […] getting apprehensive regarding the continuance of the basic structure on which the whole idea of the National Theatre depends for its health and progression, namely the permanent ensemble. v&a acgb 34/74: 1/30 These candid assessments gained the support of the Arts Council and in 1970 the Young Vic was born with Dunlop its first Artistic Director and founder. According to Dunlop, his intentions were for the theatre to cater for an over- looked audience. As he stated in a “Staging Beckett” interview, “The Young Vic was created […] to get back an audience that was missing, which was the late teens and early twenties.” A key part of Dunlop’s plans to attract this missing audience to the Young Vic was his diversified programming, which purposefully included Beckett’s drama. As he remarked, “Whilst we did some new things, the main things were first of all the great classics and revivals of recent top writers whose work was not being done and available for young people to see. And […] the two top of my list were Shakespeare and Beckett.” Indeed, the Young Vic’s enthusiasm came at a time when arguably many London theatres saw Beckett’s drama as a risk. Records of Beckett productions in London show his drama was neglected in the later 1960s, following the departure of George Devine from the Royal Court in 1965. In these five years (1965–1970), Beckett’s work was rarely performed in London—despite his recent Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969—with only two brief runs of OhLesBeauxJours with Madeleine Renaud in 1965 (in Peter Daubeny’s World Theatre Season) and 1969 significantly bridging this gap. The Young Vic’s interest can be attributed to Dunlop, who remains an unrecognised figure in the performance histories of Beckett’s drama in the uk and internationally. Dunlop worked extensively as a producer and director in the uk and America, leading theatres and festivals such as the Nottingham Playhouse, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Edinburgh International Festival, with Beckett’s drama in fact linking his programming at each of these organisations.3 When reminded about the frequency with which the Young Vic staged Beckett, Dunlop jokingly responded “Good god, we did go out on a limb,” 3 Dunlop was Artistic Director of the Nottingham Playhouse from 1961–1964.