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Anthony Clark today announced he is quitting as artistic director of the Hampstead Theatre.
The 51-year-old will step down at the end of the venue's golden anniversary celebrations and return to writing and freelance directing.
He has been in charge of the venue - which has an illustrious history of presenting new work by Harold Pinter, Mike Leigh, Michael Frayn and Stephen Poliakoff - since 2003.
Mr Clark offered a thorny suggestion for his successor - a change to the name of the theatre, which began in a Scout hut in Hampstead but has resided in Swiss Cottage since 1962.
He said: "I think the discussion should happen for a very simple reason: we are not in Hampstead. We always get a lot of latecomers because first-timers get on the Northern line to Hampstead," he said. The date of Mr Clark's departure has not been announced.
His reign as artistic director has produced a mixed response. Some critics were astonished when, last year, the theatre won increased Arts Council subsidy for its work in commissioning new writing when other groups were facing a funding freeze or cuts.
Mr Clark insisted many of the venue's new plays had been treated harshly by reviewers. He blamed this partly on an expectation that new writing should tackle contemporary issues, whereas he also championed historical subjects and popular comedies, such as Losing Louis by Simon Mendes da Costa, which transferred to the West End.
"I'm proud of the diversity of the new writing we have produced," he added.
Finances have improved since he took over, during the theatre's first year in a new, much larger home - a financial bailout had been required when it proved more expensive to run than planned. Since then, donations towards running costs have risen, from £15,000 to £500,000 last year, and audiences are at their highest since the move. But Mr Clark warned gifts were falling in the recession. Today he unveils the final part of the 50th anniversary programme. It will include The Fastest Clock In The Universe by Philip Ridley, which premiered in 1992 with a young Jude Law.
Atiha Sen Gupta, 20, who writes for TV show Skins but started with the Hampstead Theatre's youth programme aged 13, presents What Fatima Did.
