Phaedra at the National Theatre review

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In Greek mythology, Phaedra was a Cretan princess married to Athenian king Theseus who falls fatally in love with her stepson. Several variations of the story exist allowing playwright Simon Stone some legitimacy to do what he likes with his latest drama.

In a welcome return to the stage, Janet McTeer is a thoroughly modern Phaedra, here named Helen; a fast-talking, property-rich career politician with precocious children and smart, waspish husband Hugo (Paul Chahidi, terrific), she lacks for nothing except sexual passion.

When Sofiane (Call My Agent’s Assaad Bouab), the son of her long-dead Moroccan lover, arrives out of the blue, passion is ignited in the most unhinged way.

With a hint of Pasolini’s film Teorema, the fire of lust spreads from mother to daughter, Isolde (Mackenzie Davis).

Directing from his own script, Stone puts the pedal to the metal from the start as the family toss smart retorts back and forth across Chloe Lamford’s beautifully designed set.

It is played as an amphetamine-fuelled sex farce until a catastrophic party in a chichi restaurant tilts the play towards tragedy. The abrupt descent into emotional darkness is convincing largely due to the astonishingly confident performances.

McTeer is magnificent as the hormonal cougar harbouring a necrotic guilt and she is surrounded by a superb ensemble including Archie Barnes as the smartmouthed son Declan, Akiya Henry as Helen’s political ally Omalara and John Macmillan as Isolde’s cuckolded husband Eric.

The contemporary setting allows Stone to stick pins into social and political elitism, inherent racism and the exoticisation of sexual attraction.

English subtitles for occasional foreign language sequences give it the dimension of a living arthouse movie. My one gripe is that the production is housed within a giant Perspex box in which the actors appear like specimens in a petri dish.

This alienating device is now a design cliché that should be eliminated for good.

• Phaedra at the National Theatre until April 8 Tickets: 020 3989 5455

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