Since that time, Rourke has, of course, spent much of her time running west London's even smaller, not-quite-so mighty Bush, a new writing venue that Rourke later this year will be leading to new, expanded premises just minutes from its present location. Lest an exemplar of the new seem out of her league when it comes to the classic repertoire, think again. Rourke knows her way around Shakespeare - so much so, that she will be at the helm of the forthcoming David Tennant/Catherine Tate Much Ado About Nothing, marking her West End directing debut - and delivered up some pretty intense Scottish accents to critical acclaim as part of her National Theatre debut last autumn with Ena Lamont Stewart's neglected Men Should Weep.
Her appointment comes as scant surprise, since Rourke had been heading most odds-makers' lists for some time. Worth noting, perhaps, is that her own Donmar CV doesn't include any of that playhouse's heavy hitters; indeed, her 2006 revival of David Mamet's The Cryptogram to my mind didn't get the attention it deserved, not least because it offered up by some measure the best of the multiple stage performances that Sex and the City siren Kim Cattrall has now given in this country.
A more front-foot choice might have been Jamie Lloyd, whose 2010 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Passion stands in exactly the same relationship to Michael Grandage's tenure as Grandage's previous Sondheim entry, Merrily We Roll Along, stood in relation to that of Mendes, who preceded him. As it happens, Rourke was an assistant on that production of Merrily, a task that included filling in (offstage, that is!) for leading lady Samantha Spiro, when Spiro briefly but dramatically lost her voice early on.
The news of Rourke's appointment as the Donmar's first-ever female a.d. will be of additional interest to those keen National Theatre-watchers who are expecting Marianne Elliott to take the reins there as and when Nicholas Hytner steps down. Elliott, it must be said, has gone on record at NT Platforms and elsewhere saying she doesn't want the job. But then again, so did Hytner when his name was first floated yonks ago, and look where he - and the National - have ended up.
- Much Ado About Nothing at Wyndham's Theatre from 16 May to 3 September
- See what's on at the Donmar Warehouse
