After joining the Young Vic as artistic director in 2025, Nadia Fall OBE opened her inaugural season with Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane. Throughout the course of her career she has directed some of the most critically acclaimed works in theatre, from Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party (during her time as artistic director and CEO of Theatre Royal Stratford) to Chewing Gum Dreams (created by Michaela Coel) and Hobson’s Choice at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
Her work extends to television and film; in 2018, she completed her debut short film Bush, then in 2020 came No Masks – a Sky original drama based on the stories of key workers during the pandemic. Her debut feature film Brides premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025. The Young Vic’s 2026/27 season is a compelling line-up that includes the world premiere of the Thelma & Louise musical, the English-language adaptation of Eurotrash – starring Ben Whishaw – and Debbie Tucker Green’s new play Dissent. Fall herself will direct August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean – its first UK staging in 20 years. youngvic.org
My all-time favourite piece of music is Little Red Corvette by Prince. It makes me feel nostalgic, like I’m in a car with the roof down driving on some warm country road.
I am reading a very atmospheric book called Good Girl by a young writer called Aria Aber. It’s about a 19-year-old Afghani-heritage girl living in a massive estate in Berlin. She’s a genius who is trying to photograph life. I can really see it as a movie.
When I was young, I didn’t know films could be made about people like me. I’m a Londoner, but I went to university in Paris for a bit and La Haine was the vibe. It’s become a modern classic.
The greatest television show of all time is Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You, because she’s my girl and I think what she did was groundbreaking. We’re still getting over the originality of it, but I think this work will be studied in the future.
What's everyone reading?
My best-loved quote is ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead.’ I don’t know who the hell said it – Jon Bon Jovi, maybe? That’s what gets me through. Rest is for another lifetime!
I recently made a film that was partly shot in Italy, so I spent a lot of time in post-production in Rome. It’s amazing to me that you can walk into a church and see a Caravaggio just hanging there. The Calling of Saint Matthew is huge, beautiful and awe-inspiring.
The best play I’ve ever watched was Billie Piper in a modern adaptation of Yerma by Simon Stone at the Young Vic. I couldn’t stand up afterwards. She floored me; her performance of a woman who couldn’t conceive was just something else – it was so emotional.
My parents are from Delhi, and there’s a family-run restaurant called Karim’s near the Jama Masjid – the mosque in Old Delhi – that would be my last meal. It’s old-school Indian food.
A venue I’ll never forget is from when I worked on an incredible production of Phèdre with Helen Mirren, Dominic Cook and Ruth Negga. We took it to an ancient amphitheatre in Epidaurus in Greece. It was hot, the moon was out, there were bats flying across the set and we could hear howling wolves – it was the most spiritual experience. People thousands of years ago listened to the same story that we’re performing now. All theatres have a spirit. You can feel it when you walk into any performance space in any country.
It’s going to sound cheesy, but the Taj Mahal took my breath away. It’s a love letter built by someone who loved another person so much – and I can’t even get a second date! I’ve got a vivid memory of me, my siblings and our Indian cousins singing and dancing and messing about at sunset when the crowds had gone.
If I could bring back one trend it would be meeting each other in real life and turning our phones off when we do it. What would happen if we were just present with each other? No phone, no documentation. See if something actually changes.
