Australian director Simon Stone has an excellent track record when it comes to contemporising the classics.

Since his award-winning Thyestes at Belvoir in 2012, the international opera director, filmmaker and writer has garnered rave reviews for his adaptations of The Wild Duck (2014) and more recently Medea (2020), which starred Rose Byrne and Bobby Carnevale. His 2016 adaptation of Yerma, starring Billie Piper and Brendan Cowell, was acclaimed as one of the finest theatrical performances of the decade playing sold out season in London and New York.

It’s not unsurprising then that Phaedra, which opened 9 February at London’s National Theatre, turns out to be a sharp-as-nails update with plenty to say.

Assaad Bouab as Solfiane and Janet McTeer as Helen. Photo © Johan Persson

The Phaedra story has been explored by playwrights across the ages, starting with Euripides’ Hippolytus in 428BC and famously including Racine’s Phèdre of 1677.

The classical myth centres on Theseus, King of Athens, and a typically dysfunctional royal family. Hippolytus, the king’s overly ascetic son by a former relationship, is cursed by Aphrodite for refusing to worship her. As punishment, the goddess causes the king’s...