The king is dead – long live the queen. There’s something reassuring in the announcement of a theatre’s new artistic director, as we all got to experience this week with the appointment of Indhu Rubasingham to that lofty role at the National Theatre. There’s the excitement that comes with a new vision at the top – along with the comfort of having the time-honoured way of doing things re-endorsed. But that comfort feels compromised this time around. Cast your gaze beyond the National, and the artistic director looks like an endangered species. This year has seen several high-profile exits from that position, often after unexpectedly brief stints in charge. Questions have been raised about the viability of this supposedly “impossible job” – and several theatres are doing away with it entirely. Should we be welcoming Rubasingham to the role – or concerned that she’s taken on a job that’s no longer fit for purpose?
Let’s get my declaration of interest out the way first. I’m an artistic director – of Camden People’s Theatre in London, a job I juggle with covering comedy for this newspaper. At CPT, too, we’ve felt the winds of change gusting across theatre’s traditional leadership model. The idea of a sole leader monopolising power runs counter to the temper of the times. Greatly intensified by the Covid pandemic – which laid bare patterns of privilege in the arts – there’s a justified pressure towards sharing power and making it more inclusive. It’s also just felt like a harder job, post-Covid and amid a cost-of-living crisis, with arts funding drying up, a beleaguered workforce, and audiences in no rush to return to their pre-2020 theatregoing habits.
