The National Theatre’s Deputy Artistic Director says it is time a woman got the top job at the Southbank venue.
Clint Dyer told The Standard Theatre Podcast a woman would be “the best person for the job” as the theatre continues its search for a successor to Rufus Norris who announced earlier this year he is bowing out as artistic director and chief executive in 2025.
The writer, actor and director told the Standard’s Nick Curtis that Norris had made the theatre more diverse and under his leadership it had become “a national theatre that belongs to everyone in terms of all classes, not just diversity”.
He added: “I feel the best person should get the job. I’m always going to kind of sit on that side. Now if you ask me, ‘Do I think the best person for the job is a woman?’ I’d say ‘Yes’.”
Dyer said he wanted the next artistic director to be someone who “has the new stories, who has the reach, who has the capability to tap into where we are today as a society, who has that breadth of thinking to make a national conversation”. The full interview with Dyer will be broadcast on The Standard Theatre Podcast this Sunday, October 22.
Sir Laurence Olivier was the theatre’s first artistic director, after it was set up in 1963, and in the 60 years since all his successors have been white men.
Norris, who steered the theatre through the Covid pandemic, started the job in 2015 and described his time in charge as the “most challenging in our history”. His stint has seen him bring stars from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Olivia Colman to Cate Blanchett and Michael Sheen to the theatre's stage.
His successor is expected to be announced at the end of this year or early 2024 and he has previously said it was “imperative” that “the search is wide and inclusive”, but told reporters when he announced his departure he would have “no direct input” into the recruitment process.
The National Theatre announced this week that it would pilot “a selected number of early evening” shows starting at 6.30pm after research found audience members wanted earlier starts, allowing more time to travel and have dinner after the performance.
