David Lan

David Lan is a South African-born British playwright, theatre producer and director and a 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, with his thesis Making history: spirit mediums and the guerilla war in the Dande area of Zimbabwe.

Guns and Rain: Guerrillas & Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe (1985) describes the influence of religious practice on Zimbabwe's struggle for independence from colonial rule.

It has been described as 'an undisputed modern classic' 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 wrote screenplays for the features ‘Dark City’ and ‘Streets of Yesterday’ and wrote, directed and produced documentaries for the BBC made in Mozambique, Namibia and Nigeria, and 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.

Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe 1985, re-issued in Zimbabwe 2018

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

Selected Plays 1999

He was the artistic director of the Young Vic theatre in London from 2000 until 2018.

He received an Olivier Award for the entire 2004 Young Vic season.

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.

At the Young Vic, he led the campaign to rebuild the theatre (architects Haworth Tompkins) which reopened to acclaim in October 2006.

He also led the 24 shows in 31 cities 'Walkabout' season during the 2-year rebuild.

He has produced more than 200 shows.

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.

The re-design and rebuild of the Young Vic, for which he wrote the brief and which took place under his leadership, was named RIBA London Building of the Year 2007 and was short-listed for the Stirling Prize as well as winning many other awards.

His productions of plays, operas and musicals have received multiple Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics' Circle, South Bank Sky Arts (theatre and opera), Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Obie Awards.

In 2010 he co-founded the What Next?

alliance of arts organisations which now has 35 chapters across the UK.

He is on the boards of Sadlers Wells, the Belarus Free Theatre, the Genesis Foundation and the Genesis Theatre Design Programme.

He is co-chair of the International Council of the Isango Ensemble of South Africa and Patron of the theatre at the Mulberry School.

In 2010 he was awarded an honorary D.Litt.

for services to theatre and community by the University of the South Bank.

Between 2013 and 2016 he was Consulting Artistic Director of the soon to be completed Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center in New York, where he is now an artistic associate.

In his final season at the Young Vic, all five shows that he produced received five star reviews.

These were ‘The Suppliant Women’, ‘The Jungle’, ‘The Brothers Size‘, ‘The Inheritance‘ and ‘Fun Home’.

‘The Jungle’ and ‘The Inheritance‘ both transferred to the West End and won more than 25 major awards in the UK and the US including multiple Oliviers, Tonys, Evening Standards, Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards as well as South Bank Sky Arts Awards in successive years.

In the 2014 Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to theatre.

In the 2016 survey in The Stage of the 100 most influential people in the UK theatre he was ranked 6th.

He was Theatre Associate at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York 2020/2021 where he produced, with ITA, Simon Stone's adaptation of ‘Medea’ by Euripides directed by Stone with Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale.

His memoir ‘As If By Chance: Journeys, Theatres, Lives’ was published by Faber & Faber in February 2020.

He and Tracey Seaward are co-directors of The Walk Productions which produced ‘The Walk’, Gaziantep to Manchester, July to November 2021 in association with Good Chance and Handspring as well as subsequent journeys to The Hague, Poland, Ukraine, Amsterdam, across the U.K. and a 3 week visit to New York City by Amal, the 12ft puppet of a 10 year old Syrian refugee girl.

‘The Walk’ received the 2021 Time Out Best Public Theatre Award.

As If By Chance: Journeys, Theatres, Lives 2020, paperback 2021

On graduating from the LSE he received the Raymond Firth Award.

For his writing he received the John Whiting Award and the George Orwell Award.