Maureen Lipman: sleepless nights after actors quit play
Dame Maureen Lipman says she has had sleepless nights after actors quit the suicide-awareness play Right Before I Go over her views on Israel. She called Gerard McCarthy "cowardly" for withdrawing without facing her, while the creative team said the Soho Theatre run will continue.
Key Takeaways
- Gerard McCarthy withdrew from Right Before I Go, citing Maureen Lipman's publicly expressed views on Israel and Palestine.
- Lipman told The Times McCarthy should "grow up," calling his exit "virtue-signalling" if he will not meet her.
- In The Telegraph, she said she "will not be bullied" and branded such refusals "lily-livered."
- The creative team said the not-for-profit Soho Theatre run "will go on," keeping politics separate from casting.
The row centers on Stan Zimmerman's play, which uses real notes and personal stories to raise suicide awareness after an Edinburgh Fringe run. It opens at London's Soho Theatre on Saturday, with Lipman due for a special performance on 10 September, World Suicide Prevention Day.
McCarthy, known for Hollyoaks and The Fall, said on Instagram he did not feel comfortable promoting Lipman's involvement. He said he did not ask for her casting to be reconsidered and "simply chose not to use my own platform to promote someone whose political views are at odds with my own."
Why did Maureen Lipman call the exit "cowardly"?
Responding in The Times, Lipman said she wanted McCarthy "to have the courage to face me and tell me what he thinks it is I should do, or think, or say." She added she would not arrive "with a star of David on my forehead," nor try to talk him out of his views.
"I have worked with actors for 60 years who often don't share my politics," the 80-year-old said. "I don't ask them, and they don't ask me." She said it was "fair enough" if he would not work with her, but "if he won't meet with me, then he's a coward," and that without growing up he would "limit himself."
What did Lipman write about being "bullied"?
In a Telegraph column, Lipman challenged McCarthy to meet at an Ottolenghi for hummus and mint tea, asking why he would refuse to work with "an 80-year-old, experienced actress (allegedly I'm a national treasure)" for a cause helping young people struggling to keep living.
"I will not be bullied, nor will I allow anybody to tell me what to think," she wrote. "If that affects their ability to work with me, as opposed to convert me to their point of view, then they are lily-livered." She recalled once refusing to appear beside Margaret Thatcher—a choice she now regrets as "cowardly"—and predicted McCarthy may one day feel the same about quitting.
She also noted he had attended her Allegra opening weeks earlier and praised the show, asking what had changed. For readers following long careers and later-life stamina in the spotlight, see more in our Longevity & Biohacking hub.
Will Right Before I Go still go ahead?
Yes. The creative team said it keeps "political affiliation separate from artistic collaboration" and "does not vet performers" on personal or political views. "Right Before I Go will go on," the statement said, calling suicide awareness "a cause bigger than any one of us."
Playwright-performer Zimmerman said the show "has never been about one actor" and uses a revolving cast. McCarthy, he clarified, "was never asked to appear on the same performance date as Dame Maureen Lipman." Cast and crew are donating time to a not-for-profit production focused on saving lives.