Maureen Lipman Faces Protest Tensions Ahead of London Play

Dame Maureen Lipman is expecting a difficult night when she takes the stage at London’s Soho Theatre on Sept. 10.

The 80-year-old actress, known for Coronation Street and for playing Adrien Brody’s mother in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, is appearing in Right Before I Go, a play about suicide and mental health.

But two actors have pulled out of the production after Lipman’s casting was announced, citing her public views on Israel and Palestine.

Northern Irish actor Gerard McCarthy, who has appeared in Hollyoaks and The Fall, said he was withdrawing because of views Lipman has “publicly and repeatedly expressed regarding Israel and Palestine.”

McCarthy, who is nonbinary and uses he/him and they/them pronouns, said they did not ask the producers to remove Lipman or expect the other cast members to agree with their views. Instead, they said they did not want to use their own platform to promote someone whose political views conflicted with theirs.

Actress Iz Hesketh later also withdrew. She said that after learning more about Lipman’s public comments, she no longer felt the production matched her “personal values and beliefs.”

Lipman has been a vocal supporter of Israel. In recent years, she has strongly criticised some pro-Palestinian protests and left-wing criticism of Israel. She has also spoken publicly about what she describes as rising antisemitism in Britain.

After McCarthy announced their withdrawal, Lipman called the decision “cowardly” and accused the actor of “virtue-signaling.” She also said she believed McCarthy may have been “radicalised,” while inviting them to meet and discuss their differences.

In an email to The Hollywood Reporter, Lipman said she believed the controversy reflected a wider problem in modern activism: people increasingly refusing to engage with those who hold opposing views.

“The irony, the resounding and universal irony, is that the actors concerned are UNCONCERNED to learn what we have in COMMON,” she wrote.

Lipman said people with different political opinions could still find areas of agreement, including opposition to Russia’s war in Ukraine and concern for the Uyghur people in China.

She argued that disagreement should lead to conversation rather than division, writing: “No resolution through understanding or tolerance, just the statement and the empty platform.”

For playwright Stan Zimmerman, however, the controversy has taken attention away from the reason the play exists in the first place.

“It’s an unfortunate distraction to my goal of raising awareness about suicide,” Zimmerman told The Hollywood Reporter.

Right Before I Go is based on real suicide notes and the experiences of people who survived suicide attempts. Each performance is followed by a discussion with the audience and a mental-health professional.

The Sept. 10 performance is particularly significant because it falls on World Suicide Prevention Day.

The production has a rotating cast, meaning McCarthy was never scheduled to perform alongside Lipman. The show’s creative team said it does not choose performers based on their political beliefs and respects the decisions made by the actors who have withdrawn.

“Suicide and mental health affect people across every background and every political divide,” the team said in a statement. “We believe the urgent work of raising awareness and saving lives is more important than our differences.”

The not-for-profit production, in which the cast, crew and collaborators are donating their time, moved to London after a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

It is being staged at the Soho Theatre from Sept. 5 to Sept. 10. Despite the controversy, Lipman remains scheduled to perform on the final night.

She has already warned that the evening could be “noisy.” For a play focused on finding understanding and preventing suicide, its final performance is now set to take place under an unusually intense spotlight.