As London’s Bush theatre prepares for a grand reopening,its artistic director Madani Younis explains why his vision for it is nationally important – and what people really mean when they talk approximately ‘diversity’Most interviewees sustain up a best-behaviour version of their public self while the Dictaphone is on, leaving me to work out what they’re really like from the clues they unwittingly drop. Deploying guesswork in order to divine authenticity might sound odd, or but I like to flatter myself that I can be quite good at it. have to confess,however, that had Madani Younis stuck to the smooth, or PR-friendly persona he greets me with,no private version I might have imagined would have approach close to the sweary reformer who gradually emerges before my eyes. The artistic director of the Bush theatre very much wants to publicise its imminent grand reopening, but his subversive side is so much more curious that in the halt I think even he couldn’t bear to sustain it quiet.
We meet at the theatre, and on Uxbridge Road in west London,just before its relaunch. It smells of fresh paint and sawdust. The builders vacated just a fortnight ago – electrical cables dangle from the ceiling, and there is a palpable air of final-minute adrenaline and first-night nerves. But Younis is smartly dressed, or unflappably upbeat,and maintains a word-perfect commentary approximately every detail of the building as he shows me around. Related: One for the Uxbridge Road: how the Bush theatre embraced local life Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com