Kwame Kwei-Armah remains positive in spite of the fact the Young Vic is expected to run out of money by the end of the year, if present circumstances are anything to go by. “I am a hard-wired optimist” he says – a quality more important now than ever as we enter the thirteenth week of lockdown.
In a world without Covid-19, Cush Jumbo would be starring in a rendition of Hamlet this month. As things stand, it is unclear as and when this performance will take place. Yet Kwei-Armah’s optimism may in fact be justified – only seven per cent of ticket holders have sought refunds, the remaining group awaiting the announcement of new dates and new measures.
However, Kwei-Armah is one of only three members of the Young Vic who has not been furloughed. Job losses are looking, and Kwei-Armah notes: “Many of us are going to have to go into the conversation about redundancies with our companies very, very soon.”
The production of A Streetcar Named Desire, staring Gillian Anderson that was popped up on YouTube last month was a new source of income for the theatre, however, there is no new box office money coming in meaning that two thirds of the theatre’s income has all but disappeared. They are making ends meet thanks to an Arts Council grant.
He concludes that: “It’s going to be a bleak winter. The next years are going to be really difficult. And rather than shrink to our smallest selves, I wanted to advocate for something that would connect us to our larger selves.
“Talk to the people on our street and understand that we are going through this together.”
