Ben Power Archives - Helen McCrory

The Lehman Trilogy

by Gingersnap 4Helen| helen-mccrory.com | May 22, 2019

Thespians Damian and Helen, pictured with Ben Power here, attended opening night of award-winning The Lehman Trilogy play at London’s Piccadilly Theatre on Wednesday, May 22, 2019.

They joined Press Night for a VIP preview of the new production. Others in attendance were Adrian Lester, Stephen Mangan, Helen George, Natalie Dormer, Iain Glen and Ben Power.

The Lehman Brothers have opened their doors in the West End for a limited, 16-week run. It is story of a family and a company that changed the world, told in three parts on a single evening.

On a cold September morning in 1844 a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside. Dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers and an American epic begins.

163 years later, the firm they establish – Lehman Brothers – spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, and triggers the largest financial crisis in history.

Bobby Axelrod knows a thing or two about Wallstreet and the financial crisis!

The play was adapted by Ben Power, with Sam Mendes directing Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles who play the Lehman Brothers, their sons and grandsons.

Continue reading Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis Enjoy An Evening at the Theatre

The ‘Medea’ actress talks marriage, playing the female Hamlet and her craving for comedy

by Daisy Bowie | Time Out London | July 15, 2014

Over a lengthy career, Helen McCrory has played villains (Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films), romantics (Rosalind in ‘As You Like It’) and goons (Cherie Blair in ‘The Queen’). Now she stars as the ultimate anti-heroine, Euripides’s Medea, in a new NT production. She explains why it is the role for women.

Is Medea a bit like a female Hamlet?
‘It is, it’s one of the greatest parts you’ll ever play as an actress. Except it’s the reverse of Hamlet because he spends three hours worrying and does nothing, whereas Medea takes an hour and 15, massacres the whole fucking stage and walks off. But it’s great because she uses every shred of femininity that she has to do it, and she also has the complexity of guilt.’

Medea does some pretty nasty stuff: filicide, regicide. Is she a villain?
‘Ben Power’s adaptation focuses on disenfranchisement, on what happens when this highly educated, powerful, manipulative, eloquent woman, is not allowed to be part of society. But it also looks at acts of extreme violence, which often come from long-term brutalisation – which is Medea. She’s a product of a warring society, which is very relevant to today.’

Continue reading Helen McCrory Interview: ‘Medea is one of the greatest parts you’ll ever play as an actress’