David Lan

For Hong Kong politician, see David Lan (politician).

David Lan, Artistic Director of the Young Vic. Photo by David Sandison.

David Mark Lan (born 1 June 1952) is a South African-born British playwright, filmmaker, theatre director and social anthropologist.

Born in Cape Town, he trained as an actor and gained a BA at the University of Cape Town. He has lived in London since 1972, apart from two years in Zimbabwe 1980–1982. He was awarded a BSc first class (1976) and a PhD (1984) in Social Anthropology from LSE.

He was appointed artistic director of the Young Vic theatre in London in 2000. In 2013 he was appointed Consulting Artistic Director of the soon to be built Performing Arts Center (Manhattan) in New York. He continues as Artistic Director of the Young Vic at the same time.

Career

He was writer in residence at the Royal Court Theatre from 1995 to 1997.

At the Young Vic, he led the campaign to rebuild the theatre (architects Haworth Tompkins) which reopened to acclaim in October 2006, being named RIBA London Building of the Year and short-listed for the Sterling Prize as well as winning many other awards. He also led the 24 shows in 31 cities 'Walkabout' season during the 2-year rebuild.

He has produced more than 150 shows including new plays by Tarrel McCraney, Jon Fosse, debbie tucker green, Martin Crimp, Tony Kushner, Rufus Norris, Dennis Kelly, Nathaniel Martello-White; adaptations by Simon Stephens, David Harrower, David Greig, Alexandra Wood, Colin Teevan, Tanya Ronder; new operas by Jonathan Dove, Olga Neuwirth, Harrison Birtwistle; directed by Richard Jones, Rufus Norris, Patrice Chéreau, Gisli Orn Gardarsson, Peter Brook, Ian Rickson, Declan Donnellan, Luc Bondy, Benedict Andrews, Ivo van Hove, Carrie Cracknell, Natalie Abrahami, Joe Hill-Gibbins, David Harradine, Daniel Kramer, Matthew Dunster, Sacha Wares, Sound and Fury, Kathryn Hunter, Amir Nizar Zuabi, Josette Bushell-Mingo, the Belarus Free Theatre, Katie Mitchell, Diane Paulus, Mark Dornford May, Fiona Shaw, Bijan Sheibani, Matthew Xia, Walter Meierjohann, John Fulljames and many others.

As well as commissioning leading younger UK theatre designers such as Miriam Buether, Jeremy Herbert, Katrina Lindsay, Richard Hudson, Dick Bird, Patrick Burnier, Lizzie Clachan, Nicky Gillibrand, Ultz, Ian McNeil and Chloe Lamford, he has invited a number of European designers including Richard Peduzzi, Johannes Schütz, Karl-Ernst Hermann, Moidele Bickel, Jan Versveyveld, Steffi Wurster, An d'Huys, Magda Willi, Caroline de Vivaise and Victoria Behr.

He initiated the Genesis Directors' Project, the Jerwood Directors Award and the Young Vic Award.

In addition to his many plays, libretti, and films, he published an anthropological study after two years of field research in the Zambezi Valley in the extreme north of Zimbabwe. Guns and Rain: Guerrillas & Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe (1985) ^[1] describes the influence of religious practice on Zimbabwe's struggle for independence from colonial rule. It has been described as 'a classic of modern anthropology' and is taught in universities all over the world. Some of his stage works reflect his interest in politics and religion, including spirit possession and cargo cults.

He has written, directed and produced documentaries for the BBC, mostly made in African countries, but also a 'fly on the wall' account of the redesign of the Royal Court Theatre which he filmed himself over the course of a year.

He was co-director of the 'Young Genius' season at the Barbican in 2005 and of 'World Stages London' at theatres across London in 2012.

He currently chairs the Belarus Free Theatre and the What Next? group and is on the board of the Motley Theatre Design School.

Lan was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to theatre.^[2]

Stage works

Ion, libretto for the opera by Param Vir (2000) Aldeburgh
Tobias and the Angel, libretto for the opera by Jonathan Dove (1999 Almeida Theatre, 2006 Young Vic)
The Ends of the Earth (1996) National Theatre
"Charley Tango" (1995) BBC Radio 4 and World Service
Desire (1990) Almeida Theatre
A Mouthful of Birds, with Caryl Churchill (1986) Joint Stock/Royal Court
Flight (1986) RSC
Sergeant Ola And His Followers (1979) Royal Court
Red Earth (1978) ICA
The Winter Dancers (1977) Royal Court
Not in Norwich (1977) Royal Court
Paradise (1975) Royal Court
Homage To Been Soup (1975) Royal Court
Painting A Wall (1974) Almost Free Theatre
Bird Child (1974) Royal Court

Translations

"The Magic Flute" translation of the opera libretto (2009) Isango/Young Vic
The Cherry Orchard, translation of the play by Anton Chekhov (2001) National Theatre
La Lupa translation of the play by Giovanni Verga (2000) RSC
Uncle Vanya, translation of the play by Anton Chekhov (1998) RSC/Young Vic
Ion, translation of the play by Euripides (1994) RSC
Hippolytos, translation of the play by Euripides (1991) Almeida Theatre
Ghetto, translation of the play by Joshua Sobol (1989) National Theatre

Films

The Sunday Judge (1985) Writer BBC, filmed in Mozambique
Dark City (1990) Writer BBC Films, filmed in South Africa
Welcome Home Comrades (1990) Writer BBC, filmed in Namibia
Artist Unknown (1995) Writer, producer, director BBC Omnibus, filmed in Nigeria
Royal Court Diaries (1996) Cameraman, director, co-producer BBC Omnibus

Productions as director include

"Blackta" by Nathaniel Martello-White (2012)
"Joe Turner's Come and Gone" by August Wilson (2010)
"As You Like It" by Shakespeare (2006)
"The Skin of Our Teeth" by Thornton Wilder (2004)
A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry (2003 and 2005)
"The Daughter-in-Law" by D H Lawrence (2002)
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (2002)
"Julius Caesar" by Shakespeare (2000)
'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford (1999)
"The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams (1998)

Awards

In 2014 he was awarded a CBE.^[3] He has received the John Whiting Award and the George Orwell Award. He received an Olivier Award for the entire 2004 Young Vic season. He was awarded an honorary D.Litt for services to theatre and community by the University of the South Bank (2010). In the 2015 survey in The Stage of the 100 most influential people in the UK theatre, he was ranked 16th.^[4]

References

External links

John Whiting Award

1967–1969	Tom Stoppard for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Wole Soyinka for The Interpreters (shared) (1967) Peter Nichols for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1967) Peter Barnes for The Ruling Class and Edward Bond for Narrow Road to the Deep North (shared) (1968) Howard Brenton for Christie in Love (1969)

1970–1979	Freehold Company and Peter Hulton (joint) for Freehold on Antigone (1970) Mustapha Matura for As Time Goes By (1971) Heathcote Williams for AC/DC (1972) John Arden (1973) David Rudkin (1974) David Edgar for Destiny (1975) David Lan for The Winter Dancers (1976) David Halliwell and Snoo Wilson for The Glad Hand (shared) (1978) Stephen Bill (1979)

1980–1989	David Pownall for Beef (1981) Karim Alrawi for Migrations (1982) Peter Flannery for Our Friends in the North (1983) Ron Hutchinson for The Rat in the Skull (1984) Guy Hibbert for On the Edge and Heidi Thomas for Shamrocks & Crocodiles (shared) (1985) Nick Dear for The Art of Success (1986) Iain Heggie for American Bagpipes (1988) Billy Roche for A Handful of Stars (1989)

1990–1999	Lucy Gannon for Keeping Tom Nice (1990) Terry Johnson for Imagine Drowning (1991) Rod Wooden for Your Home in the West (1992) Martin Crimp for The Treatment and Helen Edmundson for The Clearing (shared) (1993) Jonathan Harvey for Beautiful Thing (1994) Joe Penhall for Some Voices (1995) Ayub Khan-Din for East is East (1996) Ann Coburn for Get Up and Tie Your Fingers (1997) Roy Williams for Starstruck (1998/9)

2000–2009	David Greig for The Cosmonaut's Last Message ... and Tanika Gupta for The Waiting Room (shared) (2000) Zinnie Harris for Further than the Furthest Thing (2001) Peter Rumney for Jumping on my Shadow (2002) Rona Munro for Iron (2003) Owen McCafferty for Scenes from the Big Picture (2004) Fin Kennedy for How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (2005) James Philips for The Rubenstein Kiss and Fraser Grace for Breakfast with Mugabe (shared) (2006) Dennis Kelly for Taking Care of Baby (2007) Bryony Lavery for Stockholm (2008) Alexi Kaye Campbell for The Pride (2009)

2010–9999	Tim Crouch for The Author and Lucy Kirkwood for It Felt Empty When The Heart Went At First But It Is Alright Now (shared) (2010)

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