For his new production, Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski once again managed to win over cinema star Isabelle Huppert. After the 2010 success of Tennessee William’s “Tramway”, in which the actress took the part of Blanche, “la Huppert” now plays the classical heroine Phaedra – in an entirely unclassical setting. Instead of using Racine’s classical French text, Warlikowski presents extracts from three contemporary Phaedra-adaptations by Wajdi Mouawad, Sarah Kane and J. M. Coetzee. Hence the plural in the title. Isabelle Huppert plays all of them, making the production a time transgressing reflection upon the Phaedra-myth in general. According to Greek mythology, Phaedra is the one who falls desperately in love with Hippolytus, her stepson. But due to the text by Wajdi Mouawad, a French Canadian author born in Lebanon, “Phèdre(s)” is much more than a meditation on illegitimate, rejected love. It is also a tale on the dynamics of colonial repression – a burning issue for France, which, in the currently era of terrorism, arguably has to face its consequences.
