Daniel Evans: ‘I am quite unashamedly a populist. I like making big shows in big spaces’

Raised in the Rhondda Valley, Wales, Daniel Evans, 44, started acting as a child. He has performed at the RSC, National Theatre and on Broadway, and won Olivier awards in 2001 for Merrily We Roll Along, and in 2007 for Sunday in the Park with George. In 2009, he became artistic director of Sheffield Theatres, and in 2016, artistic director of Chichester Festival theatre. His production of Quiz transfers to the West End this month.

What was your initial reaction to Quiz, James Graham’s play about Charles Ingram, “the coughing major” accused of cheating on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Great excitement, because I remember seeing the documentary [Millionaire: A Major Fraud] back in 2003, and having that proper sick feeling because it makes you think that the Ingrams were absolutely guilty. It was fascinating to find out more about the case itself. The audience have to vote whether they think they’re guilty or not at the end of each act; every performance except two we had a guilty verdict in Act 1 and an innocent verdict in Act 2. So it’s great fun, but it also has something substantial to say about the elasticity of truth.

Do you have a hunch yourself?
The chutzpah of thinking you could cheat by coughing, when you consider the studio itself, the geography of it… whatever happened, I don’t believe they did it by coughing.

Are you a fan of a pub quiz?
I love a pub quiz. I’m not particularly good – there are massive gaps in my knowledge, particularly around sport.

How’s it been moving from Sheffield to Chichester?
I thought it would be very different. But this Brexit statistic tells you everything: in Sheffield, where I expected the Remain vote to be very high, the Leave vote was actually 51%; in Chichester, perceived to be a much more Conservative place, the leave vote was also only 51%. Perceptions aren’t always true. One big difference is that it’s really lovely to live by the sea – and it’s always two degrees warmer!

What’s the biggest challenge for an artistic director today?
To make the funding go as far as possible. That’s about putting on pertinent shows, but it’s also about the work we do off the stage, particularly with major cuts happening to arts education. Schools are so pressed for cash that they are reliant on organisations like ours.

How did you get into theatre?
I was taken by my grandmother to the Park & Dare theatre in Treorchy. And in the Rhondda Valley there’s a great amateur tradition. I also went to chapel, and I’d get up in the pulpit and read chapter and verse – so there was a bit of theatricality going on there!

Have you ever put on a play in Welsh?
Yeah, I directed a play for the Welsh language national theatre [Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru], by Saunders Lewis, called Esther. My father is first-language, so I grew up bilingual; it means a great deal to me.

There’s a 50:50 gender-balance commitment for actors this summer at Chichester. What spurred that decision?
It was something I’d done in Sheffield and was really proud of. Last year we got our feet under the table, and then I thought, hang on – we do need to start looking at our civic duty, and our artistic duty, which is to reflect the world. We’re not doing that if we’re constantly merely reflecting the stories of men.

Why not make that explicit for playwrights and directors too, or right across the entire company?
Ultimately, that’s where we’re going. It’s bit-by-bit. Watch this space!

Do you miss performing on stage?
I’ve just started to, strangely. I miss singing – there’s a certain kind of release you get. I hope at some point I will act at Chichester. It’s hard, though; you never want it to seem like an ego trip: ‘I’m casting myself as Hamlet’… I don’t think so.

It’s clear that musicals have a special place in your heart.
There is something about that communal sound I find very moving. I’m certainly not a snob. I am quite unashamedly a populist: I like making big shows in big spaces for a lot of people.