Productions
Previous production: Phèdre
‘The National Theatre made history [...] this is only the beginning of a revolution in making theatre available in ways of which we had never dreamed.' Guardian
On 25 June 2009, and throughout the month of July, Phèdre was broadcast live to approximately 280 venues around the world and played to over 50,000 people around the world.
Helen Mirren took the title role in this savage play by Jean Racine, translated into muscular free verse by the late Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes.
Consumed by an uncontrollable passion for her young stepson and believing Theseus, her absent husband, to be dead, Phèdre confesses her darkest desires and enters the world of nightmare. When Theseus returns alive and well, Phèdre, fearing exposure, accuses her stepson of rape.
The result is carnage.
Photo (Helen Mirren) by Charlotte MacMillan