Don’t ask Kwame Kwei-Armah about the pressures of leadership. He’ll raise his eyebrows, square his shoulders and make it clear that’s never been a concern. “I’m a Black man of a certain generation,” the 57-year-old artistic director says drily. “I grew up having to run for my life from white skinheads. Running a theatre?” He shakes his head. “That was the burden of life. This is the burden of art.”
The writer, director and sometime actor has held the reins at the Young Vic since 2018, after seven years running Baltimore Center Stage. “My dad worked in a factory, my mum worked as an auxiliary nurse, and here I am running theatres,” Kwei-Armah says, sitting back in a messy rehearsal room after a long day, surrounded by scripts and sheet music. “It doesn’t mean this isn’t hard. It doesn’t mean the problems are not real. But in comparison,” he makes a dismissive motion, “I am doing a job I love, a job I didn’t even think was possible for someone like me. I’ve always just felt blessed to be given the space to do it.”
