Overview
In 2009 London’s National Theatre launched National Theatre Live — live broadcasts of National Theatre productions, captured in high definition and screened via satellite all over the world. Phèdre was the first and returns this year for international encore screenings.
In the absence of her husband — Theseus King of Athens — Phèdre is consumed with an uncontrollable passion for her stepson Hippolyte. Believing her husband dead, Phèdre confesses her desire to an unmoved Hippolyte. Upon the return of her husband, Phèdre accuses her stepson of rape — ensue inevitable carnage.
Helen Mirren plays the title role in a Ted Hughes free-verse translation of Racine's text, seen on screen by over 50,000 people. Reviews of the live performance were mixed — generally positive, if not particularly enthusiastic — but National Theatre Live is being widely embraced, even hailed as groundbreaking, for opening up the hallowed halls of the theatre to a much larger audience.