PHAEDRA is described as a new play by Simon Stone after Euripides, Seneca and Racine. It is indeed a long way after, a long way from the original plot. So, don’t, repeat don’t, despite the title, expect a Greek tragedy.
Racine’s version is often revived, having attracted many great French actresses: Rachel, Sarah Bernhardt, Edwige Feuillere, Maria Casares and Marie Bell. The British contingent includes Diana Rigg, Sheila Gish, Claire Higgins and Helen Mirren.
Phaedra, consumed by passion. lusts after Hippolytus, her step-son who refuses her advances. She accuses him of rape and Theseus, her husband, believes her. Racine’s account ends with a brilliant description of Hippolytus’s terrible death.
Phaedra at the National Theatre is no longer a Cretan princess. She is a modern British politician called Helen (Janet McTeer), a self-centred champagne socialist, shadow minister for the environment. She is married to Hugo (Paul Chahidi), an Iranian diplomat. It is not a happy marriage.
Hippolytus is now Sofiane (Assad Bouab), a journalist and activist in exile in danger of being killed by the Moroccan government. He is the son of a former lover of Helen’s who died in a car crash. She is sexually re-awakened by him because he looks so like his dead dad.
Sofiane is not the chaste Hippolytus of old and has sex not only with Phaedra but also with her married daughter, Isolde (Mackexie Davis), who is in an impotent marriage. He fancies her because she reminds him of the Helen he knew when he was seven years old and caught making love to his dad.
Simon Stone, who also directs, has successfully staged adaptations of Medea, Yerma and The Wild Duck. The present production, enormously enhanced by designer Chloe Lamford’s multiple settings in a huge revolving glass box, is excellently acted. Janet McTeer and Assad Bouab are charismatic. Paul Chahidi is amusing. The snappy dialogue is realistic. The actors constantly speak over each other and sometimes in foreign languages (with subtitles). A disruptive birthday party in a restaurant is particularly effective and one of the high spots.
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