Every director of the National Theatre redefines the building according to his – and so far it has always been a male vision – cherished ideas. Rufus Norris, who has announced he will be stepping down in 2025, was no exception. His dream was of a theatre that, in its repertoire and its audience, reflected our multicultural society and that embraced new writing. In that sense his mission has been successfully accomplished. The only question is whether, in the process, the classical canon has been neglected.
Early in his tenure I confronted Norris with the issue and suggested we were being starved of the great classics. He replied that not only was new work his prime concern but also he wanted to achieve gender parity in the National repertoire: something that was impossible if you relied heavily on a male-dominated classical past. We should credit him with opening up the institution to genuinely diverse audiences: I have never forgotten the thrill of sitting at shows such as Small Island, “Master Harold” … and the Boys and Inua Ellams’s Nigerian-set version of Three Sisters.
