‘Every family has silences’: Kathryn Hunter on despair, desire, dislodgeable limbs – and her acting genius

She has played King Lear, all three witches in Macbeth and an ape turned variety performer in Kafka’s Monkey. As she prepares for a new show, she discusses the soaring highs and deep lows of her extraordinary life Kathryn Hunter pulls off her black beanie and sits down. She hates having to keep still: “It’s torture. ” On aeroplanes, she is always in the aisle, bobbing up and down.

She has an inner restlessness, an energy looking for the right outlet – one that even eight hours of rehearsing hasn’t quieted. With the beanie, a body warmer and a cup of builders’ tea, the acclaimed actor looks as if she is on a break at a construction site. She is working on a stage adaptation of Eurotrash , Christian Kracht’s novel about a mother, played by Hunter, who is accompanied on the final trip of her life by her son, played by Ben Whishaw . As the pair come to terms with their dark past – and Europe’s – they must confront…