Stratford festival’s Seana McKenna talks about theater’s great tragic heroines

Blanche DuBois. Medea. Cleopatra. Lady Macbeth. Antigone.

In her life upon the wicked stage, Seana McKenna has cut her teeth on a treasure trove of great tragic heroines. One of the stars of Canada’s legendary Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the classically trained actress has made a career of power struggles, forbidden passions and bloody revenge.

Now, the celebrated actress is bringing her estimable guts and gravitas to the title role of “Phèdre.” Trapped in a smoldering love triangle involving her regal husband Theseus and her studly stepson Hippolytus, the queen of Athens is brought low by her unquenchable desires.

Racine’s racy 1677 masterpiece is being revived at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, in a coproduction with the Ontario troupe, where the production debuted last year. Carey Perloff directs this tale of erotic obsession gone horribly wrong, which is making its West Coast premiere through Feb. 7 in a new adaptation by Timberlake Wertenbaker.

McKenna recently took a few minutes out from rehearsals at ACT to chat about “Phèdre.” As poised as she is passionate, the stage actress held forth on the lure of ancient texts, what it’s like to tackle a monster part like Phèdre and why she will never regret devoting her life to the theater.

Q What brings you back to the Greek tragedies time and again?

A The stories are old, but the passions are current. The old stories speak to parts of us that we are not even aware of; they speak to our old brain. We respond to them. We can’t help it. The Greek plays force us to look at … impulses in human nature that we would rather pretend aren’t there. They confront issues that we don’t like to think about.

Q You have played some of the most memorable tragic characters in the theater. Does all of that history inform how you approach “Phèdre”?

A “Phèdre” is a rare beast. There’s nothing out there quite like it. It’s grueling to go through. It’s like getting punched in the solar plexus. You never know where it will take you. But yes, having done those parts gives you confidence. It gives you the courage to tackle “Phèdre” instead of quaking with terror at the prospect.

Q How has your approach to the part evolved since the Stratford run?

A When you come back to a role like this you can take it a little deeper. We are finding the passions beneath the repression, the explosiveness of it. The second time you do a play like this you think, “What the hell, let’s go for it.”

Q You’ve been at Stratford on and off for 18 years. What’s it like being part of a company for that long?

A It keeps you fit and on your toes because you always have to stretch your muscles. If you’re with a company for a long enough time, then when you do “Three Sisters”: You start out playing Irina, and then you graduate to Masha and Olga, and if you stick with it long enough, you might make it to Anfisa. It’s a real luxury to be part of a company in North America; the true life of the actor is to go where the work is.

Q Would it be silly to ask if life at Stratford is anything like it looks in “Slings & Arrows?”

A It is quite like “Slings & Arrows,” both in its horrors and in its magic. Paul Gross and Susan Coyne and all of those people are good friends of mine. It’s a real ode to the theater and the actor’s life. It’s an honorable life. Being an actor is like being part of a family. It’s a haven, a tribe of its own.

Q Do you ever feel tempted to leave the theater for more lucrative gigs in TV and film?

A I come from an English literature background, and I have a love of language, a rigor for language and ideas, that led me to a life in the theater and keeps me there. It’s the art form I love.

Q Are there any roles you are dying to play but haven’t yet had the chance?

A There is one, but it’s not a woman’s part.

Q Can’t you give me a hint?

A It’s not Hamlet. I’ve been offered Hamlet but always turned it down. And he’s got a limp.

Q I presume you mean Richard III, who would be perfect because he’s not really quite human, is he?

A Yes, he’s a creature unto himself! He also resonates with women because he wears such a mask. There is something he wants that he has been told he can’t have, so he does what he must to get it.

Q In honor of the 100th anniversary of the theater, ACT recently published a list of some of the great tragediennes who have starred there, including Vivien Leigh and Dame Judith Anderson. What’s it like to follow in those footsteps?

A The ghosts are all around you in the grand old theaters. It’s humbling to know that those great artists trod these boards before you, that you are connected to a long line of artists who came before. Theater is so transient, it’s so fleeting, you do it and then it vanishes into ether. It’s like life in that sense.

Contact Karen D’Souza at 408-271-3772. Check out her theater reviews, features and blog at www.mercurynews.com/karen-dsouza.