Scenes come out of discussions between the cast and the director, the actors “throw it around” and then he puts it on paper. Perhaps it helps that he writes the script as rehearsals unfold. That’s what Stone, the writer and director of the 2016 smash hit Yerma starring Billie Piper, does – makes old, weird stories feel naturalistic and contemporary. “When Simon first asked me to do it, I remember saying, ‘Ohhh. I promise McTeer I’m not going to make any lame jokes about stepsons, but she says they’ve changed that bit anyway. (She left London 15 years ago after her husband, the poet Joseph Coleman, watched her in Mary Stuart on Broadway and “sensibly fell in love with me”.) Now she will play the title role in a new Simon Stone production of the Greek myth variously told by Euripides, Seneca and Racine: Phaedra, the wife of the king Theseus, who falls in love with Hippolytus – her stepson.
That she can be here today is because her stepson has now gone to university, making her “a very happy empty-nester”. She is a straight talker my questions are answered with good grace. McTeer is sitting opposite me in one of the National’s many warren-like rooms, toting thick black spectacles and a wicker bag. “In terms of being an older woman portraying sexuality – it’s literally not something I ever think about.” “And one of those reasons is to avoid thinking about things like that,” she says, frankly, with a smile. Except… she is blissfully unaware of this so-called trend because she lives in the woods of Maine for a reason. It might seem like McTeer, 61, is part of the wave: the star of Albert Nobbs and The Menu is about to play Phaedra at the National Theatre, the story of an older woman undone by her own desire.
Case in point: recently, a flurry of films and TV shows about women over the age of 50 have dominated the mainstream, from Good Luck to You, Leo Grande to Happy Valley actors such as Jennifer Coolidge and Michelle Yeoh have won awards. It’s also, in a way, a mantra – a “don’t look at me”-style shrug from a two-time Oscar nominee who has somehow managed to circumnavigate fame and industry chatter. Janet McTeer lives in the woods of Maine.
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