The Young Vic has returned – on time and on budget, as artistic director David Lan’s mantra has it – and as Professor Christopher Frayling, chairman of the Arts Council observed in a speech at last night’s re-opening, these are not words that Frayling gets to say very often, either. Frayling, going on to call the work the best value for money of any of the rebuilds in recent years, also pointed out that the rhetoric of access, inclusion, diversity and participation is often detached from the reality of what goes on, but the Young Vic actually gives meaning to those notions.
In short, the Young Vic is like a prized pupil: a model theatre that meets the beaming approval of its prime parent sponsor. Frayling even admitted that the Arts Council got one thing wrong: during a rebuild, theatres either close their doors and work for the duration, or continue their work at different venues (the Young Vic did 22 shows at 41 different venues during its closure); and while the Arts Council had suggested closure, the Young Vic went on walkabout – and kept all but one of their senior management team on board – to return now fighting fit.
David Lan told the audience that Jude Law, patron of the fundraising campaign, had told a journalist that being part of the project was the proudest thing of his professional life, and Lan repaid the compliment by saying that having Law as part of the project was the proudest thing of his.
And after the foyer speeches, it was into the auditorium for the first performance in the new building – one that ticked all of Frayling’s boxes of access, inclusion, diversity and participation, with the community opera Tobias and the Angel, featuring a choir of some 140 performers drawn from the local area. But more than that, it also showed off the new building in all its new literally heightened glory: as the choir gathered in the new second gallery, the old familiar space – preserved in its perfect dimensions – could be seen to have risen higher. Otherwise, though, we felt entirely at home, even down to the restoration of the old bench seating. It was wonderful to be back there, in what was once meant to be a purely temporary space but is now a permanent fixture in London’s theatrical ecology.
