As a director Rubasingham has proven herself on stages large and small, and is interested in intelligently challenging but populist fare. At Kiln she has embraced the bubbling melting-pot with adaptations of Zadie Smith (White Teeth and the glorious Chaucer update The Wife of Willesden). She has homed in on the talent of French prodigy Florian Zeller – among whose family trilogy was the modern classic The Father.
And in Moira Buffini’s Handbagged, a witty portrait of the Queen’s encounters with Margaret Thatcher, beautifully revived just as the reign came to an end, we saw a director who can tread the line between irreverence and due respect. She’s an ambassador for inclusivity, but there’s little suggestion her political instincts are clouded by crass (whisper it “woke”) ideology.
I fully expect her to be a one-nation theatre leader – she has little mark of the metropolitan bubble. In all my dealings with her I’ve found her friendly and approachable – no minor gift when it comes to handling as demanding an institutional brief as this. And demands will come thick and fast. London feels far from the contented capital it was when Hytner ruled the roost in the golden Olympic year of 2012.
Rubasingham must bang the drum loudly for theatre per se and her building in particular – and the challenges in terms of costs, and recruiting the brightest and best, will be formidable. She will need all her charm, and programming nous, to balance the books, keep audiences, artists and Arts Council England alike onside.
What does she need to do beyond the obvious? Well, institute a less dour and serious-minded artistic environment than has prevailed under the (generally commendable) Norris; ensure fun, alongside experimentation. She finally has the chance fully to prove her visionary directorial mettle and in balancing continuity with change, I’d love her to be as open to neglected classics as to international pace-setters.
Golden ages can’t be conjured at will, but that’s what she has got to strive for – by turns a safe pair of hands and a seizer of the unexpected initiative. For our part, as she begins her journey to the top next year, arriving fully in charge in 2025, we must not mindlessly cheer-lead her, nor come down on her too hard. This is a watershed moment, upon which the successful future of the NT rests. It cannot be squandered.
