Juliet Stevenson Brings ‘The Doctor’ With Its Look at Faith, Racism and Abortion to New York: ‘I Can’t Think of a Play Where the Conversation is Hotter’

Brent Lang
·4 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Juliet Stevenson seems almost ashamed. There was a moment a few weeks ago when the boundaries between Ruth Wolff, the gifted but abrasive physician whose downfall drives the action of “The Doctor,” and Stevenson became too porous.

“I crossed this line and didn’t know who I was,” Stevenson says on a recent afternoon at the Park Avenue Armory, where she has been performing in the play since June. “I was some weird mixture of myself and Ruth. And I got incredibly upset and couldn’t quite cope. I was crying buckets onstage, and it was really bad.”

More from Variety

But why is that such a terrible thing? “That’s not appropriate,” she explains. “Because it’s not what Ruth would feel. I’ve got to manage myself managing her.”

And, one off night aside, that is what Stevenson has done brilliantly ever since she started performing the lead role in the Robert Icke play back in 2019. The show has been staged in London, Australia and now, New York, taking on an unexpected resonance each time as the moral universe keeps shifting. “The Doctor” is a weighty work that tackles a myriad of issues — from “cancel culture” to the clash between science and faith. In it, a priest wants to deliver last rites to a teenager dying from a botched abortion and Wolff’s decision to deny him access ignites a firestorm. Icke, who joined Stevenson backstage, says the show feels much more topical given that’s it’s been just over a year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

“When we first did it, abortion wasn’t a hot issue,” Icke says. “Now, it’s incredibly contentious, and we’re performing this show in the battleground for abortion access.”

“The Doctor” also lands differently in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that his death sparked around the world. Some twists in the show can’t be spoiled, but race is a central theme of “The Doctor,” which takes an unusual approach to casting. Black actors play white characters and vice versa, while female and male cast members portray characters of a different gender. The idea is to challenge audiences’ preconceptions and unconscious biases.

“I’m only moderately interested in naturalism,” Icke says. “I want to force the audience to engage with the questions we’re asking in an unavoidable way. And we’re asking if certain arguments when made by certain people to certain other people weigh differently even if the words are the same? It’s very conscious of the various identity characteristics of the actors. For our casting, it’s not blind. It’s wrong, but it’s deliberately wrong.”

Neither Stevenson nor Icke think that “The Doctor” will changes audiences’ political views, but they do hope it inspires the kind of debates that some people are afraid to have in the current cultural climate.

“All plays are conversations with the audience, but I can’t think of a play where the conversation is hotter than this one,” Stevenson says. “And I discovered long ago that social media is not the kind of place to have these conversations.

“I don’t want to give people a clear verdict,” Icke says. “I don’t want to tell people what to think. I want to soften up some ground and maybe that leads to an avalanche at some point. And that can be disturbing to some people because they want the clarity and certainty of what it all means.”

“The Doctor” offers American audiences a rare chance to see Stevenson onstage. A theatrical legend in the U.K., where she won an Olivier for “Death and the Maiden,” she is best known in this country for starring opposite Alan Rickman in the 1990 film, “Truly Madly Deeply.” Her only previous American stage credit is a 2003 New York City Opera production of “A Little Night Music.” And “The Doctor” is a showcase for her formidable talent, requiring her to be onstage for nearly the entirety of its two-hour-and-45-minute running time, portraying a figure who is principled but deeply flawed.

“The last thing you do with a character you’re playing is to judge them,” Stevenson says. “I feel ferociously protective of Ruth, but if I met her at a dinner party, I don’t think I’d like her very much. But that’s not the point. I need to understand why she does what she does.”

There’s been interest in touring “The Doctor” to other U.S. theaters, as well as offers from international venues. “It’s up to Jules,” Icke says. So, will Stevenson be ready to hang up her lab coat when “The Doctor” ends its run at the Armory on Aug. 19?

“When I finally do finish, it will be hard to say goodbye,” she says. “After all, how many times do you get a role like this?”

Best of Variety

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.