Mitchell is an English theatre director who is best known for her bold reworkings of plays by Euripides and Chekhov. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1998 and was made an associate of the Royal National Theatre earlier this year. “. . . some trace of her”, inspired by Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot”, is at the Cottesloe, National Theatre, until 21 October. For more information, visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

The way I see it: Katie Mitchell

• 1 Does art make a difference?
Yes, but the way in which it makes a difference is subtle and not easily quantifiable, because it affects people’s thought structures and emotions. Sometimes the effect lasts a few seconds and sometimes it changes people’s perceptions for ever.
• 2 Should politics and art mix?
For me, every bit of art is a de facto political act.
• 3 Is your work for the many or for the few?
The many.
• 4 If you were world leader, what would be your first law?
A total ban on all weaponry.
• 5 Who would be your top advisers?
Nelson Mandela, Václav Havel and Ed Miliband.
• 6 What, if anything, would you censor?
I am not sure that censorship is a useful way of addressing social problems, as it can drive the use or abuse underground, but if I had to give censorship a chance, I would ban the porn, alcohol and cigarette industries.
• 7 If you had to banish one public figure, who would it be?
Either Mugabe or Bush.
• 8 What are the rules that you live by?
Never fail to imagine – be that another person’s point of view or need, or another way of living. We are each of us responsible for our actions. Keep an eye out for hubris and blind spots, and remember there is no God.
• 9 Do you love your country?
No more than any other patch of earth anywhere in the world.
• 10 Are we all doomed?
I fear we may be doomed to destroy more of the earth or our global community than we want to own up to – through either violence or greenhouse-gas emissions. If we were to look starkly at many of our actions, individually or collectively, in relation to either of these issues, we may well be forced to acknowledge how doomed we are.

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