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Inappropriate Behaviour

Max Stafford-Clark pestered me for sex long before his stroke ... The theatre director’s inappropriate behaviour is not new. He was disinhibited, objectifying and disrespectful back in 1992

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Peter Burgess

Max Stafford-Clark / Opinion / Max Stafford-Clark pestered me for sex long before his stroke

The theatre director’s inappropriate behaviour is not new. He was disinhibited, objectifying and disrespectful back in 1992

Director Max Stafford-Clark humiliated me

Tracy Ann Oberman: ‘I often left his rehearsal room feeling confused and ill-at-ease.’ Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Last week I read an article in the Guardian about Max Stafford-Clark being forced to step down from his theatre company, Out Of Joint, over lewd and inappropriate behaviour towards young female colleagues. Gina Abolins, the young education officer at the company, had claimed that this year Stafford-Clark had said to her “back in the day I’d be up you like a rat up a drainpipe”. Steffi Holtz, a former young PA, has also gone on record saying that when she recently worked for Stafford-Clark he said (among other things), “if you were sat on that desk there in front of me I would eat you out”.



'Disrespectful' director Max Stafford-Clark humiliated me, actor says

Nothing about the report surprised me; I just had a wry sense that chickens were coming home to roost in this post-Weinstein world. The article included an apology from Stafford-Clark’s spokesperson for his behaviour and a disclaimer referring to the stroke and brain injury that he sadly suffered in 2006: “Mr Stafford-Clark’s occasional loss of the ability to inhibit urges results in him displaying disinhibited and compulsive behaviour and his usual (at times provocative) behaviour being magnified, often causing inappropriate social behaviour.”

I started to see a conversation emerging on social media around this, suggesting that as a legend of British theatre, and particularly one who promoted female playwrights, Stafford-Clark’s legacy should be left alone. One tweeter hinted that perhaps these young women were bullying a frail old man. I read this in one publication: “Stafford-Clark was an old man in a wheelchair who couldn’t really talk properly, and occasionally said things which were outrageous because he had suffered brain damage following a stroke.”

After thinking long and hard I have decided to speak out because I had a similar experience with Stafford-Clark in 1992, 14 years before his stroke. Let me be clear. This is not about mud-slinging or jumping on a bandwagon: this is about wanting to stand up for these young women who have spoken out and standing by them.

I cannot speak for the other women in the cast, but I often left his rehearsal room feeling confused and ill-at-ease

I had studied Stafford-Clark and his work at university as part of my degree. I knew how important his company Joint Stock had been and that he was a real champion of a host of iconic female playwrights, such as Caryl Churchill and Timberlake Wertenbaker. He led the way on giving these women a voice and I felt he was an architect of innovative challenging theatre with a provocative political narrative. I truly respected him.

For all the reasons above, I was excited to meet Stafford-Clark and to be cast by him in my first job out of drama school. It was a tiny part in a new adaptation at the RSC. I expected charisma, intelligence and challenging direction from him. I didn’t expect to feel uncomfortable and sexualised and to be propositioned.

I cannot speak for the other young women in the cast, but I often left his rehearsal room feeling confused and ill at ease. My male contemporaries were just required to be anti-Thatcher and pro-miners but I was expected to be something else. As I walked past Stafford-Clark or he sat too close to me during a note session, he often alluded to us having sex; he talked about wanting a threesome with me and another young actress in the cast. He followed me out of the rehearsal room one day asking where I was going. When I answered “the loo”, he said: “Why don’t I come with you to help.” He once decided he had to whisper an acting note in my ear instead of out loud in front of the company as is the norm. His note was to stand still and fake a 10/10 orgasm. I made a mental note not to be on my own with him in a room.

On more than one occasion he implied that it would only take an affair with a high-profile director for my career to rocket. Three years later, I bumped into him at a press night and he repeated the offer. Stafford-Clark has not commented on my specific experiences, but in a further statement from his spokesperson he has apologised for behaviour if it “made anyone feel uncomfortable or upset”.

It was humiliating and disconcerting, and given my lack of professional experience at that point I found myself looking around the room and thinking that this must be normal. This must be what being an actor is like. I never said anything about it at the time, and it simply didn’t cross my mind to talk to anyone official. While it bothered me for obvious reasons, it didn’t particularly scar me and I just got on with a growing career.

However, I’m compelled to write this because I want people to know that although Stafford-Clark had a stroke in 2006, he was disinhibited and provocative, objectifying and disrespectful to women back in 1992.

My experience suggests that perhaps it has always been his dialogue and that’s why it shouldn’t be sympathetically explained away. When someone has an esteemed reputation as a champion of women in the creative industry but whose own actions don’t match that analysis, then the double standard and hypocrisy needs to be called out. Words are important and as one of the most esteemed directors of contemporary playwriting Max Stafford-Clark knows the power of words. He should be held accountable for his.
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• Tracy Ann Oberman is an actor and writer
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