SIENNA Miller and Jack O’Connell will lead the cast as Maggie and Brick in Benedict Andrews’ Young Vic production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, which runs at the Apollo Theatre for a strictly limited twelve-week season – from July 24 (previews from July 13) to October 7, 2017.
The truth hurts. On a steamy night in Mississippi, a Southern family gather at their cotton plantation to celebrate Big Daddy’s birthday. The scorching heat is almost as oppressive as the lies they tell. Brick and Maggie dance round the secrets and sexual tensions that threaten to destroy their marriage. With the future of the family at stake, which version of the truth is real – and which will win out?
Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer prize winning play received its world premiere in 1955 at the Morosco Theater on Broadway with Barbara Bel Geddes and Ben Gazzara as Maggie and Brick. The UK premiere, directed by Peter Hall, opened at the Comedy Theatre in 1958 with Kim Stanley and Paul Massie in the same roles. The 1958 Academy Award nominated film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman was directed by Richard Brooks.
Sienna Miller was last on stage in the West End playing Patricia in Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and was previously seen at Wyndham’s Theatre as Celia in As You Like It. Her New York theatre credits include After Miss Julie, Cabaret, Independence and Cigarettes and Chocolate.
Her many screen credits include Live by Night, Mississippi Grind, Layer Cake, Alfie, Casanova, Factory Girl, American Sniper, Foxcatcher, The Edge of Love, G.I. Joe, Yellow and the forthcoming The Lost City of Z (film); The Girl, Bedtime and Keen Eddie (TV).
Jack O’Connell was last seen on stage in The Nap at Sheffield Crucible Theatre. His other theatre credits include Scarborough for the Royal Court and The Spiderman, The Musicians and Just for NT Shell Connections.
For his film work he has won multiple awards, including the 2015 EE BAFTA Rising Star Award, the New Hollywood Award and the Chopard Trophy Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Most recently, his project Home won the BAFTA for British Short Film in 2017.
His other film credits include Money Monster, 300: Rise of an Empire, Unbroken, ’71, Starred Up, Liability, Private Peaceful, Tower Block, Weekender, Wayfaring Stranger, Eden Lake and Black Dog. He will next be seen on screen in Tulip Fever and The Man with the Iron Heart as well as starring in the Netflix TV series Godless.
O’Connell’s television credits include Skins, United, The Runaway, This is England, Dive and Wuthering Heights.
For the Young Vic, Benedict Andrews has previously directed his own version of Three Sisters, which won the London Critics’ Circle Best Director Award, and A Streetcar Named Desire, with Gillian Anderson and Ben Foster, which transferred to New York in 2016. His first production for the Young Vic was Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses, a co-production with ENO – where he has also directed La Boheme and Detlev Glanert’s Caligula.
His many directing credits for Sydney Theatre Company include The Maids with Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert, which toured to the Lincoln Centre Festival in New York; and Big and Small which came to the Barbican, also starring Cate Blanchett. Andrews has also worked extensively at the Schaubühne Berlin, Komische Oper, National Theatre Iceland and Belvoir Street Sydney.
Andrews’ first feature film, Una, starring Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn, premiered at the 2016 Telluride Film Festival and will be released later this year.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof will have set designs by Magda Willi, costume designs by Alice Babidge and lighting by Jon Clark. Further casting will be announced at a later date.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof marks the Young Vic’s first production to debut directly in the West End and is presented by the Young Vic and The Young Ones. Previously the Young Vic have transferred A View from a Bridge, Golem, The Scottsboro Boys, Simply Heavenly, Tintin and A Doll’s House.
Image: Sienna Miller and Jack O’Connell. Photo credit: Charlie Gray.
Tickets: Previews: Monday to Thursday £10 – £55, Friday and Saturday £10 – £57; from July 25: Monday to Thursday £10 – £65, Friday and Saturday £10 – £67.
NB: For this Young Vic production, there will be seats available at £10 for under 25s for each performance, booked through the Young Vic Box Office, with 75 tickets at £20 or less for every performance.
Times: Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm.
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The Menier Chocolate Factory’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, starring Tom Hollander as Henry Carr continues at the Apollo Theatre until April 29, 2017.