Isabelle Huppert plays Phaedra, Barbican

As part of the London International Theatre Festival, French screen and stage icon Isabelle Huppert comes to the Barbican to star in a fresh version of the Ancient Greek myth of Phaedra. It has already impressed in Paris, with Huppert's performance lauded as reaching 'prodigious new heights'.

In a celebration of the multi-textual, enduring influence of the story, progressive Polish director Krzystztof Warilkowski combines three contemporary works, in three separate sections for one new piece of drama.

Textual extracts from Lebanese-Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad, Sarah Kane's Phaedra's Love and J. M. Coetzee's novel Elizabeth Costello are woven together into a three and half hour play, performed in French with English surtitles.

Greek Theatre can be challenging at best: throw in Sarah Kane, French language and the kind of cutting edge productions for which director Warilkowski is known across Europe and this modern mash up of different Pheadras is an exhilarating prospect — spanning eras and cultures for a new piece of boundary breaking theatre, performed by an icon of French theatre.