The actress on her big break at 18, Hollywood sexism and why her graphic performance in The Years is making theatregoers faint
Every night during its month-long run at the Almeida Theatre in London last summer, one scene in The Years, the stage adaptation of the French author Annie Ernaux’s novel, caused several audience members to faint or leave in distress.
The scene features a student — known as “Annie 3”, played by Romola Garai — undergoing a backstreet abortion while describing it in an explicit monologue.
“There were very visceral reactions. Weirdly, the scene itself is not very graphic, but the description is very detailed and that gets to people,” says Garai, 42, whose credits include Scoop, The Hour and Vigil. We are sitting in the south London rehearsal room where she and the five-strong cast, including Gina McKee and Deborah Findlay, who all play “Annie” at different stages in her life, are preparing for the play’s imminent transfer to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End, after receiving across-the-board rave reviews…