Young Vic the entire faculty resigned from the Old Vic, but in 1969 Frank Dunlop became founder-director of The Young Vic theatre with his free adaptation of Molière's "The Cheats of Scapin", presented at the new venue as a National Theatre production, opening on 11 September 1970 and starring Jim Dale in the title role with designs by Carl Toms (decor) and Maria Bjornson (costumes). Initially part of the National Theatre, the Young Vic Theatre became an independent body in 1974. In the words of Laurence Olivier, then director of the National Theatre: "Here we think to develop plays for young audiences,
The Old Vic Theatre director Sir Peter Hall arranged for the progressive folk-rock band Gryphon to première "Midnight Mushrumps", the fantasia inspired by Hall's own 1974 Old Vic production of "The Tempest" starring John Gielgud for which Gryphon had supplied the music. For two years prior to the departure of the National Theatre company, Toby Robertson, director of the Prospect Theatre Company, sustained a campaign that the Old Vic should make Prospect its resident company. For the Old Vic, Robertson's overtures proved increasingly hard to resist in the face of poor box office returns achieved by productions staged by other visiting companies; against