As if by Chance: Journeys, Theatres, Lives

A family day at the beach. There's a song, an argument, a dash across the white sand and into the high rolling waves. We're in Cape Town and David Lan is ten years old.

Cut to 1969 and, visiting London fresh out of high school, he interviews theatre luminaries Sybil Thorndike, Tom Stoppard, Trevor Nunn, Paul Schofield before heading home to join the South African army.

Now it's 1999. We're at the Young Vic where David is interviewed to be artistic director, a job he'd do for eighteen year...