All Heart

We may be in the grip of a global pandemic, but Dino Fetscher looks well. Very well. Sitting in a sun-filled room overlooking the Thames, he positively crackles with energy as he enthuses about his current project. He’s on a lunch break from rehearsing The Normal Heart, a play by Larry Kramer that was first staged in New York City in 1985, at the height of the HIV/Aids crisis.

For Fetscher, a former Mr Gay UK, to find himself on stage at the National Theatre is the realisation of a lifelong ambition – but it hasn’t always been an easy path. “I’ve wanted to be an actor since I was about six,” he says.