This summer the Young Vic have brought Cat On A Hot Tin Roof to the West End. The play, which stars Colm Meaney, Sienna Miller and Jack O’Connell, is as searing as it ever has been. A truly twenty-first century telling of this twentieth century masterpiece. Here is why you need catch this production.
Electrifying pairing of Sienna Miller and Jack O’Connell
The marriage of Brick and Maggie is complex to say the least with the pair seemingly incapable of being with or without each, trapped in relationship-purgatory. Sienna Miller’s Maggie is equal parts charming but broken, independently minded but craving Brick’s love – it’s a tangled web of contradictions that Miller plays perfectly. While Maggie has her eyes on a future prize, Brick’s world has fallen apart and he has pressed the self-destruct button. Jack O’Connell brings this to life in devastating fashion, a masterclass in physicality and emotion.
Colm Meaney’s nuanced Big Daddy
Big Daddy is a difficult character to warm to yet Colm Meaney is capable of making you feel pity, warmth and disgust towards this towering figure. A man who at first seems boorish and uncaring is humanised as his family falls apart around him, seemingly interested in nothing but his money. Colm is on ferocious form and up there with the giants that have played the role before him.
Benedict Andrews’ revitalising direction
It can be hard to find new ways to tell a story as iconic as this but director Benedict Andrews breathes new life into the text. The emotions and stakes feel heightened, every moment dripping in pathos. Under Benedict’s direction, the play is an unrelenting watch but one you’ll want to watch again and again.
For more information and tickets visit the Young Vic website.
Photos by Johan Persson.
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