Gina McKee: I'm bothered that women's stories remain in the margins

Gina McKee has claimed that women’s stories remain "in the margins", as she criticised people who discuss The Years purely as a play about the female experience.

The actor, one of five women currently appearing in the production at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre, said narratives focusing on men’s lives were simply not discussed in the same way.

Speaking on the London Theatre Review podcast alongside her co-star Harmony Rose-Bremner, McKee discussed being part of an all-female ensemble.

She said she had never worked "on a piece like this before", calling it "a real feast".

But she suggested majority-female casts should not be quite so surprising, continuing: "It makes me a little bit sad that it’s so unique. I would love more. We need more, we should have more. We shouldn’t be talking about it because it’s a play about the female experience; we don’t do the equivalent if it’s a male experience."

"We’re still in the margins in that respect. That bothers me," she added.

The Years, directed by Eline Arbo, dramatises the life of a woman called Annie, born in France in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

McKee plays one of a series of Annies who the audience encounters at different stages in her life in the form of fellow actors Rose-Bremner, Deborah Findlay, Romola Garai and Anjli Mohindra.

The production has received significant attention for its depiction of an abortion. But despite routine show stoppages during the scene, both McKee and Rose-Bremner told the podcast the cast had only been bonded further by the interruptions.

"Often the show-stops, bizarrely, unite us," McKee explained.