New York premiere of Penelope Skinner's Linda adds to Trump debate

Linda, Penelope Skinner's acclaimed play which made headlines in late 2015 at the Royal Court Theatre when Kim Cattrall was replaced in the title role at the last minute by Noma Dumezweni, is generating buzz in New York for completely different reasons.

London Olivier Award-winning actress Janie Dee is starring in the New York production of Penelope Skinner's play about a middle-aged woman struggling with both her home life and high-powered job at a beauty company. But the play, which is currently being staged by the Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center in midtown Manhattan, has been acclaimed in New York for contributing to the ongoing debate over gender equality in the era of Donald Trump's Presidency.

Variety wrote the "production is a bittersweet rallying cry for women who become invisible — and totally irrelevant — when they turn 50" while Time Out New York wrote Linda "demands to be seen".

Dee told the Standard: "The fact it's resonating right now is very fortunate. When I saw it at the Royal Court I was struck by the story but this year I'm torn apart and it's rocking the world because it's about now.

"Once I get on that groove of playing Linda I live her life and I live the play but if it resonates with people, it's because they're looking at the headlines. I think this play needs to be done.

"Sometimes I do a play and think, 'Why are we doing it?' whereas with this I go, 'I know why we're doing it now.' It probably needs to be a story that is told even more resolutely right now but I think whatever had happened the world can listen to this story. The issues the play deals with are absolutely present for so many women."

Playwright Penelope Skinner said until Trump got elected President, she anticipated she would have to rewrite the play to take into account there would have been a female President in the form of Hillary Clinton that would have impacted the play's question of the problems women face in .

She said: "It's weird because I thought Hillary was going to be President and I would have to rewrite the play to accommodate that fact that a woman could rise that high and break the glass ceiling. But actually Linda still lives in a world where that's not possible."

The run-up to the New York production of Linda was less stressful than the London opening in late 2015 when Kim Cattrall withdrew for health reasons just three days before the first preview. But her replacement Noma Dumezweni was acclaimed by the critics and went on to star as Hermoine Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the West End.

Skinner said: "It's nice to have an actress who goes from day one of rehearsal to the opening although Noma was amazing! In some ways I wish she'd been there from day one and that would have been the right decision but this time round in New York it's been a more normal journey.

Skinner observed of New York: "It's half like being half in a film and half in a nightmare. Seeing so many homeless people is the most shocking thing- the level of poverty is not what you expect to see in a part of America where there is so much money. It's normalised in a way you'd never expect...but America has been kind to me."

She added she was hoping to make a film of her 2010 play The Village Bike with Romola Garai reprising the role she played onstage at the Royal Court.