Cate Blanchett wants her new play to provoke conversation about equality and gender boundaries.
The 49-year-old actress is set to star in Martin Crimp’s latest work ‘When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other’ – based on Samuel Richardson’s novel ‘Pamela’ – which follows the relationship between a young woman and her employer and explores themes of sexual domination and gender roles.
The ‘Oceans 8’ star said that her latest play channels impulses from the #MeToo movement and insisted that it is vital to create a piece for "the time you’re in" otherwise the project is futile.
In an interview with the Guardian, she said: "You make a piece for the time you’re in, otherwise it’s not relevant. What’s the point of doing it? I always see theatre as a provocation.
"You’re not up there running for office; you’re asking a serious of questions. Some people might be enraged, some perplexed, some people might be excited. Hopefully, it’s the conversation afterwards that’s the most important."
The ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ actress also admitted how the play encompasses themes she’s been "thinking about for a long time".
She explained: "A lot of the things the play brings up is stuff I’ve been thinking about for a long time. The boundaries of gender, how language constantly fails us and confines us, keeps us in paradigms and frameworks which are frustrating and confounding. "
As for how Blanchett decided which roles are right for her, the Australian star said that "you always have to risk failure" when choosing a part.
She said:"If you read a work and you know what it is, I don’t know why you’d bother rehearsing it. You always have to risk failure.
"The more recognisable you are the more expectation there is around you, the harder it is to carve out that space. But you have to. "
Cate Blanchett hopes new play will provoke conversation
