12 Feature

RUDE HEALTH

Jane Cornwell discovers acclaimed actress Juliet Stevenson is also a political activist committed to fighting injustice

Juliet Stevenson is often cited as the greatest Their combined efforts, along with those of a veillance state. They teamed up in 2018 on Fried- A social media witch-hunt ensues. Wolff British stage actor of her generation. This doesn’t stellar 10-strong supporting cast, resulted in a rich Schiller’s 1800 political thriller Mary Stuart, comes off badly in a TV debate about medical make her feel pressured, necessarily. But taken wildly acclaimed production that sold out its notable for the charged nightly coin toss that ethics, blindsided by the intolerant wallop of alongside her numerous awards and honours — summer 2019 run at the Almeida Theatre in decided which of the queens (Mary or her nem- identity politics — politics that, at face value, BAFTA and Olivier Awards, a CBE from the Islington, a 15-minute bus ride from where we esis, Elizabeth I) Stevenson and co-star Lia Willi- speaks to our image of our selves according to Queen for services to drama — it definitely helps are now, and will transfer to London’s West End ams would be playing. class, gender, race and sexuality. Notions of un- keep her on her toes. in April. “Rob is as much a writer as a director,” says conscious bias are addressed by Icke’s extreme “You’ve got to be so careful as you age as an In the meantime, The Doctor makes its Aus- Stevenson of Icke, a working-class University of casting. Women play men. Black actors play actor,” she says, sitting at her wooden kitchen tralian premiere at the Adelaide Festival next Cambridge graduate whose audacious rewrites white. It’s a theatre of ideas, prodding us into table on a rainy morning in north London, her month. “Taking work beyond London is vital,” and radical stagings are intended to expose the thinking about morality, belief systems, human hands around a mug of ginger tea. “There’s a said Icke on collecting the gong for Best Director original essence of the work. Period dress is relations and the present state of the world. real danger of getting stuck in a box of old habits at the 2019 London Evening Standard Theatre eschewed. Conventions are overturned. Cliches Stevenson is onstage throughout the entire and mannerisms. I mean, how many actors can Awards. “I am thrilled that more people will have are dusted off. immersive three hours — including sitting you think of that actually get better as they access to this production, and to Juliet’s lumi- “His speech has real rhythm and phrasing, quietly on her own during the interval. Praise for Jgrow old?” nous performance.” which makes sense since he is a musician as well. her performance has been effusive. “One of the She is wearing a long-sleeved white top under The piece is Icke’s parting gift to the Almeida, He is fizzing with intellectual energy. Bam, bam!” peaks of the theatrical year,” declared the Guard- denim dungarees and seems younger than her where he has been a formidable associate direc- She clicks her fingers twice, causing the fam- ian. “Impeccable … for all her chilly intellect and 63 years. She’s remarkably unstarry for someone tor for six years. At 33 he’s outgrown the ily’s golden cockapoo, Milly, who is dozing on toughness, [Wolff] is as vulnerable as an open who has played every strong female lead going “wunderkind” label ascribed to him by critics cushions nearby, to look up. wound,” stated the Times. And as the character for the Royal Shakespeare Company and bowled over by his pioneering contemporary “This is the work I love to do,” she continues runs the gamut of emotions from rage to con- appeared in films such as the 1990 British fantasy versions of classics by the revered likes of Aes- fervently. “Exciting, unsettling things that turn fusion to anguish the audience is repeatedly drama Truly, Madly, Deeply — a sort of Ghost chylus (Oresteia), Chekhov (Uncle Vanya) and the soil in terms of how we think and how we see asked to ponder the question: how free are we, for grown-ups that allowed Stevenson to express Ibsen (The Wild Duck). All after setting out his each other.” really, to choose our own identities? talents including dancing, playing the piano and provocateur stall in 2014 with Mr Burns, A Post- Originally banned in Vienna, the Schnitzler “Ruth isn’t easy, which is why I love playing grief-crying until mucus swung from her nose. Electric Play, a work by modern American play- play denounced the anti-Semitism that was her. She has hugely high standards of herself and She smiles, eyes bright. “So I’m always saying wright Anne Washburn loosely based on The spreading through Austrian society by posing an others.” She pauses. “I’m fascinated by women’s to directors, ‘Push me! Treat me like I’ve just left Simpsons, and which was widely panned. ethical conundrum: a Jewish doctor is attacked relationship with power. I’ve had some very drama school! Don’t be afraid to give me notes!’.” Stevenson is one of a recurring group of actors for refusing a Catholic priest permission to give painful experiences of working with women For her central performance in The Doctor, favoured by Icke, for whom the ideal actor/direc- last rites to an ailing patient. The Doctor keeps who’ve become powerful in their industry. an update of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1912 Viennese tor relationship is one of deepening, ongoing that original premise but makes the protagonist There’s this white-knuckle grip; they feel they drama Professor Bernhardi, celebrated British exploration. The two collaborated first in 2017 female: Stevenson is Dr Ruth Wolff, founder of a have to watch their backs so there’s no room for theatremaker Robert Icke shoved Stevenson to when Stevenson played Gertrude, the mother of prestigious medical institute and a secular Jew trust or collaboration.” her limits, she says. Then he demanded even Hamlet (played by Andrew Scott, aka Fleabag’s who denies a priest access to a 14-year-old Cath- Stevenson is used to confronting her own un- more. “Rob is relentless!” the mother of two “hot priest”), in a production that imagined olic girl dying from a botched abortion, wanting comfortable feelings. Playing some of the most offers happily. Shakespeare’s Elsinore as a CCTV-speckled sur- to spare the girl further distress. complex and interesting characters on the stage

February 1-2, 2020