Other Major Theatres: Donmar, Royal Court, Almeida, Young Vic, Lyric Hammersmith
Following on from Michael Grandage and before him Sam Mendes was always going to be a difficult job but Josie Rourke has stepped up to the mark and offered a series of fine productions since she took over at the Donmar.
She must have been as relieved as the critics and the public when her opening salvo, The Recruiting Officer, featuring a cast led by Mackenzie Crook and an all-encompassing design from Lucy Osborne played to almost universal acclaim.
Since then, there have been several other evenings to savour, the best of which was undoubtedly Phyllida Lloyd's all-female Julius Caesar with Francis Barber and Harriet Walter in the vanguard.
Not far behind was the revival of Brian Friel's Philadelphia Here I Come, which proved to be both moving and heartwarming.
Away from home territory, 2012 saw the end of one Donmar Trafalgar season and the start of another, which is to be the last, each showcasing young directing talent.
In January, Huis Clos by Jean Paul Sartre was the proving ground for Paul Hart, who did a good job given a top-notch cast that included Will Kean, Fiona Glascott and Michelle Fairley on the road to hell.
To close the year came The Promise by Alexei Arbuzov, translated by Ariadne Nicolaeff in a new version by Penelope Skinner. This turned out to be an engrossing play about life in Russia starting during the siege of Stalingrad in 1942 and ending in the Soviet era as the 60s dawned. Not only did it showcase its director, Alex Sims, but also introduced a highly promising young actress in Joanna Vanderham.
This was followed by Titus Halder directing Strindberg's The Dance of Death in a new, rather lightweight version created by Conor MacPherson.
The Royal Court has announced that it too will have a new Artistic Director in 2013 when Dominic Cooke gives way to the National Theatre of Scotland's Vicky Featherstone, who will become the first female to take on the Sloane Square job.
In the meantime, Cooke continues to please both Upstairs and Downstairs.
In the larger theatre, the biggest event of the year was the ever inventive Caryl Churchill's Love and Information, an accumulation of 37 tiny sketches that together built up into a whole that is far more than the sum of the parts.
In a similar vein, Martin Crimp's In the Republic of Happiness was equally elusive, divided into three sections with only relatively limited connections, at least at a surface level.
For those that prefer their plays accessible, Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett was another really strong offering. It followed the exploits of a couple from university days through to retirement age. With Ben Miles and Victoria Hamilton both on top form under the trusty direction of James Grieve, visitors had a rare old time remembering and recognising the past but also seeing how it can unduly influence everything that comes after.
In Basildon was an amusing example of David Eldridge at his best, allowing us to see what family life is like in suburban Essex today.
Birthday by Joe Penhall was the kind of one-trick pony that proved to be perfectly enjoyable if lacking in depth as it explored the phenomenon of pregnancy from the unusual perspective of a man about to give birth.
The Upstairs Theatre is always likely to have the odd disaster but during 2012, there were three absolutely top-quality new plays and several other very good ones.
Constellations by Nick Payne was an unforgettable love story featuring two characters played by Rafe Spall and Sally Hawkins. In an embarrassingly intimate space, viewers are able to relish the ups and downs of burgeoning love in a production that has already won the Evening Standard award for best new play, as well as garnering a West End transfer.
Jez Butterworth's The River, starring Dominic West, was a quiet, contemplative piece during which very little happened but audiences were transfixed by the quality of the writing and a sense of underlying mystery that held the attention to a remarkable degree.
The Witness by Vivian Franzmann was one of the year's highlights. It explored the horrors of Rwanda through the eyes of a professional photographer played by Danny Webb and his adopted daughter, Pippa Bennett-Warner. The play worked insidiously by cleverly revealing hidden terrors, thanks in part to the skill of director Simon Godwin. This is another drama that really packs a punch and fully deserves a run either Downstairs or in the West End some time soon.
Choir Boy is the best work by American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney for some time. It takes a wry look at life in the United States through the eyes of black boys at an elite private (public in British terms) school, that could almost have come straight out of Terence Rattigan.
Bola Agbaje’s Belong starts out as a relatively light comedy pitting British Nigerians against those who remain in the mother country. However, by the end, comedy has given way to something considerably more sinister as one realises that politics even in a free country can be dangerous.
There were several other highly commendable plays Upstairs. The Young Writers Festival introduced Luke Norris with Goodbye to All That and Hayley Squires's Vera Vera Vera.
The former touchingly explored the generational divide by putting a teenager with grandparents, proving that the writer has real empathy with those of each age. Vera Vera Vera viewed some of the tough issues of life today through the eyes of mouthy teens and those just a little older.
The Almeida is yet another theatre with a change of artistic director in the offing. Meanwhile, Michael Attenborough continues to hold the reins and produce interesting work.
The undoubted highlight featured Jonathan Pryce as King Lear in a deeply moving performance that worked extremely well in the venue's intimate space.
In an attempt to spice up a familiar work, Bijan Sheibani translated Lorca's House of Bernarda Alba to a Spanish, Moorish milieu, which proved to be an effective way to persuade audiences to look at the work afresh.
More traditional was a fresh take on Filumena by Eduardo De Filippo in a new version by Tanya Ronder. Building drama and comedy simultaneously during the first two acts, the artistic director assisted by a cast led by Samantha Spiro and Clive Wood ensure that this production proved both entertaining and edifying.
David Lan has turned the Young Vic into one of the best and most tempting theatres in the land.
This was proved when Hattie Morahan took the Evening Standard's best actress award for her performance in A Doll's House, given a magical makeover by writer Simon Stephens and director Carrie Cracknell.
This was a deserved reward both for the theatre and the performer, although Nora's need for positivity, which gave the actress for great opportunity, was significantly facilitated by the convincing hesitancy of Dominic Rowan playing her husband.
To quote from the original review "Hattie Morahan is outstanding, whether portraying a flirtatious young woman, enjoying family life, revealing increasing levels of panic as doom seems inevitable or visibly gaining courage to start a brave new venture. The actress also packs a mean temper tantrum in the face of her husband's angry hypocrisy... Carrie Cracknell has created a lucid production of a great play that can still speak to us all today".
Lan has also expanded the Young Vic so that the main house is complemented by two smaller studio spaces that allow experimental work to be tried out, sometimes with a view to a transfer, if productions proved to be popular.
That is exactly what happened with Joe Hill-Gibbins's wildly eccentric but absolutely lovable version of The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, which started the year in the Maria Studio.
Given free rein to use his imagination, the director updated the play to the current time and somehow made a revenge tragedy seem contemporary in the claustrophobic, smaller space. With a substantially new cast, it then transferred extremely well into the main theatre to excite a new audience.
Similarly adventurous was Australian director, Benedict Andrews's new version of Three Sisters by Chekhov.
Greatly assisted by an excellent trio of Mariah Gale, Vanessa Kirby and stage debutant Gala Gordon, Andrews took massive liberties (although some might think that he could have gone even further) in producing a kind of post-punk style exploration of a traditional work.
Wild Swans by Jung Chang, adapted by Alexandra Wood and directed by Sasha Wares, largely dispensed with text, despite being based on one of the biggest books that most who completed it will ever have read.
Strangely, visitors might well feel that they have a better idea of life in China as a result of sitting in the theatre for just under an hour and a half than ploughing through 600 pages of sometimes manipulative text, from what claims to be a biography. It also helped that designer Miriam Buether used every trick in the book to enhance the experience.
Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie has been the subject of regular revivals and the latest came in the Maria Studio when Natalie Abrahami directed a cast starring Natalie Dormer and Kieran Bew. This turned out to be sizzling but eco-friendly production under the banner Classics for a New Climate.
Under Sean Holmes, the Lyric Hammersmith is another venue where there is a great sense of adventure and the ability both to discover the sublime and the ridiculous.
In the former category came Eugene O'Neill's Desire under the Elms in a production that almost literally fizzed with sexuality, as well as demonstrating the writer's generally well hidden ability to use.
Considerably funnier and deliberately so was the sublimely ridiculous Oedipussy from Spymonkey. Its combination of James Bond and Greek tragedy must surely have deserved to be a disastrous flop but such is the virtuosity of this company that it was hilarious from start to finish.
Lovesong by Abi Morgan was in a very different vein. This was a love story that viewed they relatively happy couple at two different stages of their lives 40 years apart. Once again, when looking at the elderly couple it was most instructive to see their lives in 1968 and begin to understand what turned them into the characters that they eventually became.