Lisa Palfry (Big Mama), Hayley Squires (Mae) and Brian Gleeson (Gooper) with Richard Hansel (Doctor) and Michael J Shannon (Reverend) join the previously announced Sienna Miller (Maggie), Jack O’Connell (Brick) and Colm Meaney (Big Daddy) for the Young Vic production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof directed by Benedict Andrews. The younger members of the Company will be announced at a later date.
The twelve-week run in the West End at the Apollo Theatre begins previews on 13 July 2017 with press night on 24 July. The last performance is 7 October 2017. Set designs are by Magda Willi with costume designs by Alice Babidge, lighting by Jon Clark and sound design by Gareth Fry. Music is by award-wining composer and musician Jed Kurzel.
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?
Lisa Palfrey’s theatre credits include Junkyard for Headlong, Much Ado About Nothing for Theatre Clwyd, The Seagull for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, The Kitchen Sink for the Bush Theatre, Red Bud, Ingredient X and Under The Blue Sky all for the Royal Court Theatre, Festen and The Iceman Cometh both for the Almeida Theatre and Cardiff East and Under Milk Wood both for the National Theatre. Her film credits include Pride, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, House of America, Under Milk Wood and Guest House Paradiso. Her television credits include Hinterland, The Line of Duty, Green Hollow, Casualty, and Family Tree.
Hayley Squires’ theatre credits include The Pitchfork Disney at Shoreditch Town Hall and As Good a Time as Any at The Print Room. For the role of Katie in Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winning I, Daniel Blake she won the British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer, the Evening Standard British Film award for Best Supporting Actress and also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her other credits include Giantland, Away, Polar Bear, A Royal Night Out and Blood Cells. Her television credits include The Miniaturist, Collateral, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, The Commuter, Murder, Southcliffe, Complicit and Call The Midwife.
Brian Gleeson was most recently seen on stage in The Weir at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. His other theatre credits include The Walworth Farce at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin and the Donmar Warehouse production of The Night Alive, which also ran at the Atlantic Theatre in New York. His film credits include Assassin’s Creed, The Flag, Tiger Raid, History’s Future, Standby, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Stay, Snow White and The Huntsman. His television work includes the lead role of Jimmy Mahon in the RTÉ series Rebellion, Quirke and Stonemouth. His film work due for release this year includes Steven Soderbergh’s feature film Logan Lucky, Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread.
Richard Hansell’s more recent theatre credits include Lazarus at the King’s Cross Theatre, the Young Vic’s production of A View From the Bridge which transferred to the West End and then to Broadway and Macbeth at the Trafalgar Studios. His other theatre credits include Tonight at 8.30 for Chichester Festival Theatre, The Madness of King George III at the Apollo Theatre, The Bridge Project at the Old Vic and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Troilus and Cressida for Shakespeare’s Globe, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, School for Scandal and Hamlet all for English Touring Theatre and A Patriot For Me and Two Gentlemen of Verona for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His television credits include And Then There Were None, Downton Abbey, Spooks, The Royal, Miracle Landing on The Hudson and E=MC2, and on film his credits include Shine, The Wolfman and Hamlet.
Michael J Shannon’s theatre credits include The Dining Room and The Glass Menagerie, both at Greenwich Theatre, Artichoke for the Tricycle Theatre, Totally Foxed at the Theatre Royal Bath, The Price at the Leicester Haymarket, The End of the World at Nuffield, Southampton, A Thousand Clowns at the Palace, Watford and A Delicate Balance at the Nottingham Playhouse. His television credits include We’ll Meet Again, Boston Legal and Brothers & Sisters.
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
13 July – 7 October 2017
Apollo Theatre
31 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 7ES
Performances: Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm
After a hugely successful run at the Menier Chocolate Factory earlier this year, Terence Rattigan’s 1944 play, Love in Idleness transfers to the West End for just fifty performances. Rattigan’s original work was called Less Than Kind which he later changed to be a less political and gentler show which was performed as Love in Idleness over 70 years ago.
Rattigan always regretted the toning down of the work so it’s pleasing that director Trevor Nunn has worked to create a new version which takes the best from both versions.
Set late in 1944, towards the end of the Second World War, the first three acts of this four act play take place in the plush Westminster home of Sir John Fletcher (Anthony Head), the Minister for Tank Production.
Sir John, despite still being married to his wife Diane (Charlotte Spencer) is living with Olivia Brown (Eve Best), the would be socialite widow of a dentist. When Olivia’s son Michael (Edward Bluemel) returns from four years in Canada he immediately clashes with Sir John who as a wealthy businessman, is the very antithesis of his newly fledged left wing idealogies.
Michael, horrified with his mother, tries to split the pair up with methods ranging from deeply cunning to simple teenage petulance. Edward Bluemel captures the character to perfection with his truculent exchanges with Sir John and moody mannerisms when not getting his way. Eventually to appease her son, Olivia leaves Sir John and returns to the flat she lived in with her late husband.
The star of the show has to be Eve Best as Olivia, torn between her son and her lover. Best portrays the slightly scatty widow with comedic charm, at times reminiscent of the legendary Joyce Grenfell. From not knowing exactly how old her son is to her creative way of conserving rations (by going out to dine) the character is a delight.
British Pathé news footage is shown between the acts (although it’s only in the final act that there is a complete (rather long) set change), which works well as a background to the piece. This is certainly a period piece but never feels dated. The content of the play features issues that could easily be transposed into modern day.
Perhaps a little too long (2 hours and 45 minutes) but Love in Idleness is a nostalgic treat, wonderfully warm and witty.
