Frank Dunlop, creator of the Young Vic, dies aged 98

Frank Dunlop, who has died aged 98, was the founder of London’s Young Vic and is credited with radically changing the Edinburgh festival; at the Brooklyn Academy of Music he sought to introduce institutional permanence to New York theatre. The Young Vic was built in 1970 in nine months from a former butcher’s shop, a breeze-block building inspired by Dunlop’s memory of a postwar theatre centre under the Old Vic.

Although it had a similar relation to Olivier’s National Theatre parent company, the Young Vic quickly established its own identity, offering lively productions to young audiences at affordable prices and programming Shakespeare and Molière alongside Beckett, Ionesco and Genet. As director of the Edinburgh festival from 1984 to 1991, Dunlop shifted the balance so drama was no longer a poor relation to classical music and opera, presenting international theatre seasons that included Ingmar Bergman, Andrzej Wajda, Víctor García and German directors Manfred Wekwerth and Joachim Tenschert.

Key Topics

Culture, Frank Dunlop, Young Vic, Edinburgh Festival, Old Vic, Yukio Ninagawa