Laura Aikman

The play is written by Ava Pickett, who everyone is talking about as a young rising star, quite rightly, following her breakout play 1536, which had acclaimed runs at the Almeida and then in the West End earlier this year.

Bloodsport was actually written a few years ago, before 1536, but is having a proper production here at Stratford East, directed by the new artistic director there, Lisa Sperling, and with a very good cast, including Michelle Dockery, Laura Aikman.

So this is an event of some note, I think.

The play is actually fully titled Bloodsport After Helen of Troy, and as that suggests, it is an imagining of what might befall Helen of Troy after she returns from the battle, but set in modern-day Britain, and specifically in Essex.

And as you say, I think Ava Pickett's very good at writing from the perspective of women in a patriarchal society, as she did in Tudor England in 1536, without hitting us over the head with it, really, though it is pretty explicit here, as the men are unashamedly horrible and misogynist.

They are, and the casting is very, very good.

Laura Aikman as C, she's almost like a Barbie.

Yes.

And C

is played by Laura Aikman, who I think is possibly sort of MVP here.

I think Helen is...

She's fantastic.

Nancy, what did you think about the performances?

I thought they were great.

I loved Laura Aikman.

I loved the way she was kind of, you know, torn between kind of blaming and hating her friend for being sort of brave enough and selfish enough to leave in the first place.

When my daughter came into the industry, she was really annoyed because everybody would go, oh, you're Stuart St. Paul's daughter.

And she'd go, no, I'm, I'm Laura Aikman.

But as she got more famous, people would go to me, oh, you're Laura's dad.

And I'd go, hey, you're 20 odd.

Clytemnestraae, correct plural? Someone will tell me.

Now, C is quite possibly the most brilliant character here, played by Laura Aikman.

And she is that brilliant combination of TV sitcom tone that Laura has perfected on screen, and this deeply human, layered, grief-stricken, tragic figure.

It's as though there are layers to her that she is only inspired to access when Helen offers her the space in which to do so and reminds her of the rage that she ought to feel, the fire that ought to burn within her.