ILLUSTRATION BY TIM MCDONAGH
It’s early evening at the Young Vic. Kwame Kwei-Armah, the theatre’s new artistic director, strides across the packed bar. A young woman standing near me nudges her friend. “That’s Kwame,” she says, and there is genuine excitement in her voice.
Well-known actors in theatre bars elicit this kind of response, but artistic directors? Not often. Rufus Norris would pass pretty well unnoticed in the bar at the National, RSC supremo Greg Doran wouldn’t garner more than a glance from Stratford audiences. But Kwei-Armah commands attention. He reaches a man on the other side of the room and engulfs him in one of his signature bear hugs.