Dame Maureen Lipman has launched a scathing attack on Gerard McCarthy, the actor who walked out of their upcoming West End play over her support for Israel, branding him “cowardly” for refusing to confront her face-to-face.
The veteran actress, 79, is set to appear in Right Before I Go at London’s Soho Theatre later this month, but McCarthy — best known for Call the Midwife, Hollyoaks and Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-winning Belfast — withdrew from the production last month, citing discomfort with Lipman’s well-documented pro-Israel views.
Now Lipman has hit back with characteristic bluntness, telling The Times that McCarthy should “have the courage to face me and tell me what he thinks it is I should do.”
“Virtue-signalling” in the West End
Speaking to the paper, Lipman dismissed McCarthy’s decision as performative. “I would like to reassure him that I will not be arriving with a star of David on my forehead, nor am I trying to argue him out of his point of view,” she said. She went further: if McCarthy didn’t want to share a stage with her, “then fair enough” — but if he refused to meet her, “then he’s a coward”.
It was a punchy, pointed response. And Lipman didn’t stop there. “And if he doesn’t grow up, then he’s going to limit himself to working with just Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem for the rest of his career,” she added — a clear reference to two Hollywood A-listers who have been vocal critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The 79-year-old, who has racked up six decades in showbusiness, framed the row as something utterly ordinary. “I have worked with actors for 60 years who often don’t share my politics. I don’t ask them, and they don’t ask me,” she said. A fairly standard industry arrangement, in her view — until, apparently, now.
McCarthy breaks his silence
McCarthy, 45, who is originally from Belfast and identifies as non-binary, using both they/them and he/him pronouns, addressed the row publicly on Instagram on Saturday 30 August.
In a lengthy statement, McCarthy said they had contacted the production team privately after Lipman was cast, explaining that they “did not feel comfortable personally promoting” her involvement. Crucially, McCarthy insisted they had not demanded her casting be reconsidered. “I simply chose not to use my own platform to promote someone whose political views are at odds with my own,” they wrote.
But a subsequent conversation with the play’s writer, Stan Zimmerman, prompted a rethink — and a full withdrawal. “It’s regrettable that my time on RBIG ends this way,” McCarthy said. “But sometimes you have to be prepared to walk away from something when staying would mean compromising something that matters much more.”
McCarthy has been approached for further comment.
A long-running flashpoint
The spat is the latest flare-up in a heated, sometimes ugly debate that has divided the British arts scene since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 and Israel’s subsequent military offensive in Gaza. Lipman, a proud Jewish actress and longtime Israel advocate, drew a fierce backlash in October 2023 when she suggested artists who signed an open letter backing Palestinian humanitarian causes should feel “shame”.
The letter in question had attracted more than 2,000 signatories, including Tilda Swinton, Charles Dance and Miriam Margolyes — actors Lipman has shared screens and stages with throughout her storied career.
Lipman doubled down at the time, telling The Telegraph: “I would love the signatories to answer me this question: if your beloved country had been under attack for 70 years… how angry and exhausted and how determined to defend your country against any future attacks would you be?” She went further in a separate interview, claiming that actors protesting against Israel were getting “close to fascism.”
Right Before I Go is scheduled to open at the Soho Theatre on Saturday 5 September, with Dominique Moore, Claire-Marie Hall, Emrhys Cooper, Paul Bigley and Tosh Wanogho-Maud rounding out the cast.
Why it Matters
This isn’t merely a theatrical tiff — it’s a vivid illustration of how the Israel-Gaza conflict has fractured cultural institutions from the inside out. For decades, British theatre has prided itself on being a space where artists of wildly different political stripes can collaborate without rancour. The Lipman-McCarthy row suggests that consensus is crumbling. Whether one views McCarthy’s decision as principled or Lipman’s counter-attack as overdue straight-talking, the exchange lays bare an uncomfortable truth: in 2026, even a small Soho play can become a battleground for one of the most polarising geopolitical conflicts of our age.
