Colm Meaney Joins Sienna Miller and Jack O'Connell in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

Colm Meaney will join the previously announced Sienna Miller and Jack O'Connell to play Big Daddy in the Young Vic production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof directed by Benedict Andrews. 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. Final casting will be announced at a later date.

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?

For this Young Vic production, there are seats available at £10 for under 25s for each performance booked through the Young Vic Box Office. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the Young Vic's first production to debut 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, Romeo and Juliet, The Scottsboro Boys, Simply Heavenly, Tintin and A Doll's House.

Colm Meaney (Big Daddy) was last on stage in London alongside Kevin Spacey in Moon for the Misbegotten at the Old Vic, with the production subsequently transferring to Broadway. His other theatre credits include Breaking the Code, The Cider House Rules and Juno and the Paycock. Earlier this year, Meaney won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Film for his portrayal of Martin McGuinness in The Journey, opposite Timothy Spall. His additional film credits include all three adaptations of Roddy Doyle's The Barrytown Trilogy (The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van), Die Hard 2, Dick Tracy, The Last of the Mohicans, Far and Away, Con Air, Layer Cake, The Damned United and Halal Daddy, to be released this summer. He has also appeared in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa with Steve Coogan, as well as the comedy-drama One Chance, the story of Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts. Meaney voiced the role of the 'Miles Standish' in Free Birds and 'Grandpa' in Norm of the North. He is best known on television for his long-running role as 'Chief Miles O'Brien' in the hit series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Meaney also starred in AMC's western series Hell on Wheels and will next be seen in TNT's new period drama Will in the role of James Burbage.

Sienna Miller (Maggie) trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York. She was last on stage in the West End as Patricia in Flare Path at the Haymarket Theatre 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 film 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. On television her credits include The Girl, Bedtime and Keen Eddie.

Jack O'Connell (Brick) 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. His film work has garnered him 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. O'Connell will next be seen on screen in Tulip Fever, The Man with the Iron Heart as well as starring in the Netflix TV series Godless. His television credits include Skins, United, The Runaway, This is England, Dive and Wuthering Heights.

Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer prize winning play received its world premiere in 1955 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. The 1958 Academy Award nominated film starred Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman.

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. His first feature film, Una, starring Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn, premiered at last year's Telluride Film Festival and will be released in September.

The Young Vic produces new plays, classics, forgotten works, musicals and opera. It co-produces and tours widely in the UK and internationally while keeping deep roots in its neighbourhood. It frequently transfers shows to London's West End and invites local people to take part at its home in Waterloo. In 2016 the Young Vic became London's first Theatre of Sanctuary. Recent productions include Simon Stone's multi award-winning new version of Lorca's Yerma which returns to the Young Vic with Billie Piper reprising her performance in July, the premiere of Charlene James' multi-award-winning play Cuttin' It and Ivo Van Hove's multi award-winning production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge (West End & Broadway transfers), as well as Horizons, a season of work exploring the lives of refugees. David Lan is Artistic Director, Lucy Woollatt is Executive Director. www.youngvic.org

Photo credit: Andrew H. Walker