The Young Vic Theatre is a performing-arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth, United Kingdom. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970.

Venue: Young Vic
Town: London, GB
Capacity: 420

The Young Vic Theatre is a performing-arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth, United Kingdom. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Nadia Fall has been artistic director since 2025, succeeding Kwame Kwei-Armah, and David Lan before him. In the period after World War II, a Young Vic Company was formed in 1946 by director George Devine as an offshoot of the Old Vic Theatre School for the purpose of performing classic plays for audiences aged nine to fifteen. This was discontinued in 1948, when Devine and the entire faculty resigned from the Old Vic, but in 1969 Dunlop became founder-director of The Young Vic theatre with Scapino, his free adaptation of Molière's The Cheats of Scapin, presented at the new venue as a National Theatre production. It opened on 10 September 1970 and starred Jim Dale in the title role, with designs by Carl Toms (decor) and Maria Björnson (costumes). Initially part of the National Theatre, the Young Vic Theatre became an independent body in 1974. In the words of Laurence Olivier, then-director of the National Theatre: "Here we think to develop plays for young audiences, an experimental workshop for authors, actors and producers." The aim was to create an accessible theatre which offered high quality at low cost in an informal environment. The aim was to appeal to young audiences, but this time not specifically to children. Dunlop completed creation of the theatre venue in 1970, a breeze-block building constructed out of a former butcher's shop and an adjacent bomb-site with a red wooden slat auditorium bench seating. The structure was intended to last for five years, but has become permanent. The auditorium, with a thrust stage, has an approximate capacity of 420, although the configuration and capacity can vary depending on the design of each production. The theatre undertook a significant rebuilding and renewal project in the 2000s, designed by architects Haworth Tompkins, boos