NewsPHOTO CALL: Helen Mirren and Dominic Cooper Star in London PhèdreHelen Mirren and Dominic Cooper star in the National Theatre's current staging of Racine's Phèdre.
By
Ernio Hernandez
June 10, 2009
Nicholas Hytner directs the production, which utilizes a version by late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. The cast also includes Margaret Tyzack, Portia Booroff, Chipo Chung, Alexander D'Andrea, Wendy Morgan, Ruth Negga, Elizabeth Nestor, John Shrapnel, Stanley Townsend and Tristram Wymark. "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," read show materials. "When Theseus returns, alive and well, Phèdre, fearing exposure, accuses her stepson of rape. The result is carnage."