Theatr Clwyd Announces Full Cast of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

Theatr Clwyd Artistic Director Tamara Harvey today announces full casting for Tennesee Williams' Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. Robert Hastie directs Desmond Barrit who takes on the role of Big Daddy and is joined by Catrin Aaron (Mae), Gareth David Lloyd (Brick) Ryan Ellsworth (Dr Baugh) Ian Hallard (Rev Tooker) Andrew Langtree (Gooper) Abigail McKern (Big Mama), and Catrin Stewart (Maggie). The production opens on 10 February, with previews from 4 February, until Saturday 5 March. Following these performances, the production will tour to Swansea and Cardiff.

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you - gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.

In a plantation-owner's mansion on an airless Mississippi night, faded golden boy Brick and his beautiful but frustrated wife Maggie have gathered with the rest of the family to celebrate Big Daddy's 65th birthday.

As the grandchildren sing and the alcohol flows, deep currents of desire and deceit pull the evening inexorably towards disaster.

Desmond Barrit plays Big Daddy. His many theatre credits include, Damsel in Distress (Chichester Festival Theatre), Harvey (Birmingham Rep & West End), Therese Raquin (Theatre Royal Bath), The Birthday Party (Royal Exchange). For the National Theatre his credits include Habit of Art, The History Boys, Stuff Happens, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Mountain Giants, The Recruiting Officer, The Wind in the Willows, Three Men on a Horse (Olivier Award), Jacobowsky and the Colonel and The Magistrate; and for the RSC, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (Olivier nomination for Best Actor); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Helen Hayes Award), The Comedy of Errors (Olivier Award), King Lear, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Tempest (Clarence Derwent Award), Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor and The Constant Couple. Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy (Donmar Warehouse), Dubarry and The Scarlett Pimpernel (Her Majesty's Theatre), Eurydice (Whitehall Theatre) Three Men on a Horse (Vaudeville Theatre), The Lair (Old Vic), Wicked (Victoria Apollo), A View from the Bridge (Greenwich Theatre) and This is a Chair (Royal Court). For television his credits include Endeavour, Northanger Abbey, Young King Arthur, Follow the Star, Madame Bovary, Maxwell's House, The Old Devils, Homer and His Pigeons, Boon, Pirates II, Dalziel and Pascoe, Miracles Extra and True Tilda; and for film, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Rebecca's Daughters, A Midsummer Night's Dream, All for Love and Daylight Robbery.

Gareth David-Lloyd plays Brick. His theatre credits include Twelfth Night (English Touring Theatre), Three Women and a Piano Tuner (Chichester Festival Theatre and Hampstead Theatre), and The Threepenny Opera, 12 Angry Men (national tours). For television, he is best known for his portrayal of Ianto Jones in Doctor Who and Torchwood. He has also appeared in Absolute Power, Rosemary and Thyme, Warehouse 13, Mine All Mine and Beethoven. For film, his work includes I Am Alone, The Good Drug Dealer and the up-coming Dark Signal.

Catrin Stewart plays Maggie. Her theatre credits include The Jew of Malta, Love's Sacrifice (RSC/Swan Theatre), The Cherry Orchard (Young Vic), Mametz, The Devil Inside Him (National Theatre of Wales), Longing (Hampstead Theatre), Romeo And Juliet (Headlong / UK Tour), Buried Child (Leicester Curve), and The Lady From The Sea (Manchester Royal Exchange). For television, her work includes Doctor Who, Misfits, and Stella; and for film, The Library Suicides, Night Shift and On a Knife Edge.

Andrew Langtree returns to Theatr Clwyd to play Gooper - he previously appeared in Oh What a Lovely War. His theatre credits include Oppenheimer, The Shoemaker's Holiday (RSC), A Stroke of Luck (Park Theatre), Sherlock: The Best Kept Secret (West Yorkshire Playhouse and UK Tour), Of Mice and Men (Bolton Octagon), Ghost (Piccadilly Theatre, also China), The Glass Menagerie, Come Blow Your Horn, London Assurance, A Conversation, Six Degrees of Separation (Royal Exchange Manchester ), The Rose Tattoo (National Theatre), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Glasgow Citizens Thetare), Brighton Beach Memoirs (Oldham Coliseum), and Blood Brothers, Mamma Mia!, Fame (West End). His television work includes The Royal and Cutting It.

Abigail McKern makes her Theatr Clwyd debut as Big Mama. Her father, Leo McKern, played Big Daddy in the original British production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1958, directed by Peter Hall. McKern won an Olivier Award for As You Like It. Her recent theatre credits include James Dacre's production of Brave New World, (Theatre Royal and Derngate, Northampton) and Pride and Prejudice (Sheffield Crucible) directed by Tamara Harvey, Travelling Light, (National Theatre) and Shakespeare in Love (Noel Coward Theatre).

Catrin Aaron, an Associate of Theatr Clwyd, plays Mae where her theatre credits at Theatr Clwyd include All My Sons, Aristocats, God of Carnage and Salt, Root and Roe. Other theatre work includes Sex and the Three Day Week (Liverpool Playhouse), London: Let's Get Visceral, (Old Vic Tunnels) and Round and Round the Garden (Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke).

Ryan Ellsworth plays Dr Baugh. Recent theatre work includes Cymbeline, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore (Cheek by Jowl) and Where There's A Will (English Touring Theatre).

Ian Hallard plays Rev Tooker. His most recent theatre credits include The Vote (Donmar Warehouse), Great Britain (National Theatre) and Alcina (Festival d'Aix-en-Provence).

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is directed by Robert Hastie, Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse.

His recent work at the Donmar includes acclaimed productions of My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot (also West End), and Splendour, by Cardiff-born playwright Abi Morgan. In April, Hastie completed the first stage of the Donmar Warehouse's ten year long My Mark project with Michelle Terry, undertaking and filming interviews in schools nationally to document the views of those eligible to vote for the first time in the 2025 general election. His other directing credits include Carthage, Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun (Finborough Theatre), Sunburst (Holborn Grange Hotel), Sixty-Six Books: In The Land Of Uz, Middle Man, David and Goliath, Snow In Sheffield and A Lost Expression (Bush Theatre).

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