The ancient Greek tragedy of a woman’s illegitimate desire for her stepson, followed by a false claim of rape when he rejects her, is not an easy one to revive for our times. But it could become rich with modern resonances around postmenopausal desire.
Simon Stone’s reimaginging, which calls itself “a new play after Euripides, Seneca and Racine”, initially seems unrecognisable. Phaedra has become Helen (Janet McTeer), a charismatic politician who falls for Sofiane (Assaad Bouab), the son of her past, now dead, Moroccan lover.
