The groundbreaking director’s new project, Arcadia, fills tents with poetry and music in Manchester. She talks about Covid and Brexit, becoming a mother and taking over Bath’s Ustinov
A flicker on the screen and a shadow resembling Deborah Warner is there. Then she’s gone. “Sorry, I’m not really set up!” she bellows. “I’m putting you on some books!” The camera judders and Warner reappears, bathed in light. A director to the last.
We were meant to be having lunch but we’ve ended up on Zoom. It transpires that there is an excellent reason. Four weeks ago, Warner’s partner, the singer Claire Egan, gave birth to a baby girl, who is sleeping soundly in the next room. As she talks about becoming a parent for the first time at 62, Warner looks thrilled and shellshocked. “I’m a little all over the place,” she says. “I thought I’d better tell you, because why not? It beats a birth announcement in the Times.”
