Sophie Okonedo on Throwing Props, Why Damian Lewis Is a 'Titan' & the Humor and Tragedy of Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

British actress and 2005 Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo has cut a major swath through Broadway in recent years, winning a 2014 Tony for A Raisin in the Sun and a nomination last year for The Crucible. She is currently winning rave reviews for her performance as the wife confronted with a quadruped-loving husband (played by Damian Lewis) in Edward Albee’s Tony-winning The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Okonedo was en route to a performance when Broadway.com caught up with her one recent night.

Were you surprised to find yourself doing The Goat in London after two American masterworks [A Raisin in the Sun and The Crucible] almost back to back on Broadway?
To be honest, yes! I’d had an amazing time on The Crucible, but I also found it quite draining and had thought afterwards that I was going to have a break and do some filming. But Ian [Rickson, the director] sent me [The Goat] and I couldn’t not read it because he was a friend. As soon as I did, my reservations about doing another play fell away immediately, and I signed on the dotted line. 

What specifically did you respond to in Albee’s metaphoric tale of a successful architect, Martin, who falls in love with a goat, much to the alarm (and worse) of his wife, Stevie? 
The play was unlike anything I had ever come across, really. It felt like a modern tragedy that cuts very deep and has a lot to say about our limits when it comes to tolerance and desire, but it’s also very, very funny and edgy in its humor.

Does Albee’s writing surprise the actors as much as his audience?
It does inasmuch as it takes you places you think it’s not going to go—and then it does. The Goat is a modern classic, if I may call it that. It’s got all the elements of Greek tragedy, alongside a lot of wit and humor.

Is it a difficult play to live with eight shows a week?
Well, it is so transgressive, and I love the way [Edward Albee] makes us think about the right and wrongs of everything, as if all over again. That said, I don’t quite know I would react if I just walked in unprepared and had [The Goat] happening in front of me. In the first week, there were quite a few seats going bang. What’s great, though, is that even as it goes to some shady and dark places, it’s still very funny.

Does that feel like a change?
There weren’t a lot of laughs in The Crucible!

How does it feel—spoiler ahead—to break so many props every performance?
Stevie’s tantrums may look random but it’s all staged with great precision; no matter how crazed I may appear to the audience, it’s all very exact.

Do you find playing Stevie cathartic?
I get completely taken over by everything I do—every part—and I have found “Stevie mode” to be a pretty good place to be. The thing about Stevie is that she’s a blood-letter. She lets it out; she’s no pushover. 

Is it true that your leading man, Damian Lewis, performed the opening night with a perforated eardrum?
What happened is that all of us had had a flu bug, and Damian got it just before we opened. A week or so earlier I had had no voice, and then it moved on to Damian and his inner ear. He was an absolute titan the way he carried on: I chalk it up to Dr. Theater!

How are you handling Albee’s grammatical and linguistic precision—he insists on the “crest” of a hill, for instance, not the “top.” Is that rubbing off on you?
My grammar is nowhere as good as my character’s! I think I may notice more now as a result of this play when things are correct, but it would take a lot more than me doing a play to make my grammar all that much better. 

Now that we’re in the current Tony season, what are your memories of that time on Broadway, given that you were part of it in 2014 and again in 2016?
I mean, with A Raisin in the Sun [opposite Denzel Washington in 2014], I genuinely thought I wasn’t going to win—you read around and get a sense of who’s going to get it, so I honestly went in [to the ceremony] quite relaxed.

How did you react when your name was called?
My legs sort of went, if I recall. I got up on stage and somehow managed to give a speech and then backstage afterwards my legs went again. I was just so shocked.

And last year for The Crucible?
I really knew I wasn’t going to win that one, so I had a great time without really needing to worry. It was lovely being there in a special place with lots of people it was great to meet and to be able to go out with them all, and I had my husband with me that second time, so that was special.

Looking ahead, do you ever yearn to do a new play after this spate of American classics?
A new play would be quite nice, though something about doing plays like The Goat does spoil you. If I can find a piece of new writing that has the power of Edward Albee, I’ll be banging down the door!