After a 20 year hiatus, internationally acclaimed French actress Isabelle Huppert is going to set theatre stages ablaze once again. She will be playing the lead role for Phaedra at London’s Barbican Centre in June 2016, as she plans to take centre stage in retelling the famous Greek myth.
The 62 year old is known for her role in Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001), which is based on a novel of the same name (Die Klavierspielerin) by Austrian author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004, Elfriede Jelinek. Appearing in over 100 film and television productions, Huppert is the most nominated actress for the Cesar Award (the equivalent of BAFTA) as well as winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for The Lacemaker (1977). She also won the Cesar Award for Best Actress for La Ceremonie (1995).
According to Greek mythology, Phaedra was married to King Theseus of Athens, bearing him two sons. Through the course of time she also fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus, who refused her advances. Jilted, with her passion for him becoming common knowledge, she hung herself. Before taking her life she managed to leave a letter behind where she cleverly charged her stepson for assaulting. Staged by Krzysztof Warlikowski, the artistic director of Warsaw’s Nowy Teatrnd, the play will be based on Sarah Kane’s play Phaedra’s Love, as well as JM Coetzee’s novel Elizabeth Costello. The play is going to relocate Phaedra’s story in the modern world, to give it a fresh new take. All stage actors will perform in French, but English subtitles will be provided alongside.
Sir Nicholas Kenyon from the Barbican stated: “Our new season is an exemplar of our dynamic international programme at its best, and with a record of 1.2 million audience figure this year, the Barbican continues to prove it’s a place that people are passionate about.”