‘We were booed. I felt proud’: Daniel Evans on his rollercoaster journey to RSC supremo
The joint RSC boss is on unstoppable form, making a blistering return to the stage with a 4:48 Psychosis performed in the small hours – and an Edward II that will be a ‘screw you’ to his school bullies
Daniel Evans, whose sparkling performances in Stephen Sondheim musicals have earned him two Olivier awards and a Tony nomination, has been meaning to get back on stage for some time. Chalk up the delay to little things such as running Sheffield Theatres for seven years, followed by another seven at the Chichester Festival theatre before being appointed co-artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company with Tamara Harvey in 2023. Aside from a spot of emergency understudying on the RSC’s queer musical western Cowbois, it has been 14 years since Evans acted on stage. Even during his award-laden early years, he would sometimes get home after a performance and think: “Is this it?”
The 51-year-old sitting in the corner of a London rehearsal room today is singing a different tune. “I had this need to act again,” Evans says. “And I can’t quite explain it.” He looks lean and taut, his head as smooth and shiny as a Belisha beacon. “I started losing my hair in my early 20s. I’ve been shaving it since I was 25.” Wait: he definitely had a healthy mop when he played Peter Pan at the National in 1997 opposite Ian McKellen as Captain Hook. “A wig,” he confides gently, as though breaking bad news to a delicate child.
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