ITV gives new home to Young Vic

ITV gives new home to Young Vic

Maddy Costa
Thursday July 8, 2004

The Guardian

The Young Vic has found a new home in the television studios that once hosted Michael Barrymore's My Kind of Music, Bruce Forsyth's Play Your Cards Right and the first series of Pop Idol. Yesterday artistic director David Lan announced that ITV London is giving the Young Vic a suite of five large rehearsal studios and office space in Kennington Park, south London, "pretty much for free". The Young Vic will stay here for two years while its home, in nearby Waterloo, undergoes extensive renovation.

Lan is the first to recognise how lucky the theatre has been in attracting support. Jude Law joined early as patron of the fundraising campaign, and a raft of actors - including Patrick Stewart, Brian Cox, Brenda Blethyn and Prunella Scales - have contributed considerably to the £11.5m raised so far. However, the ITV London partnership is unusually fortuitous. "The rehearsal rooms are much coveted," says Lan. "They've been used in the past by film companies and big shows like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mamma Mia; LWT game shows have also rehearsed there. When Clive Jones - head of news at ITV London, and a member of theYoung Vic board for the past 18 months - heard what we needed, he suggested we might be able to use these rooms. In fact, they've been given to us pretty much for free."

The Young Vic will use this space to rehearse all its touring productions as part of the two-year "Walkabout" season, including revivals of Lan's own production of A Raisin in the Sun, starring Lennie James, and Rufus Norris's Christmas show Sleeping Beauty, which appears at the Barbican in London before travelling to New York.

With another £1m to be raised, Lan is hoping that this presence in the States will encourage international donations. But he is also "surprised, thrilled and delighted" by the level of support already received. "There are a lot of people trying to do shows in London," he says. "It's brilliant that people think of us as being particularly valuable."

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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