Deborah Findlay will lead the cast of The Glass Menagerie at the Young Vic this November.
Findlay will play the role of Amanda Wingfield in a cast that also includes Sinead Matthews, Leo Bill and newcomer Kyle Soller.
Findlay is a Laurence Olivier Award-winner whose stage career includes Madame De Sade at the Wyndham’s theatre, The Cut, The Vortex and John Gabriel Borkman at the Donmar Warehouse and numerous productions at the National Theatre, including Stanley, The House Of Bernarda Alba and Mother Clap’s Molly House. She is also recognised for her screen work which includes BBC costume drama Cranford, Foyle’s War and State Of Play.
She is joined in The Glass Menagerie by Matthews, who was recently seen on stage in Our Class at the National Theatre. Matthews is a frequently collaborator with Mike Leigh, who has directed her in his films Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky. The pair will team up again for his play Ecstasy at the Hampstead theatre next year.
Bill appeared in Laura Wade’s latest play Posh at the Royal Court earlier this year and has worked frequently at the National Theatre in productions including The Reporter and Pinter’s The Hothouse. His substantial screen CV includes Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland and horror film The Living And The Dead.
An autobiographical play, Tennessee Williams’s 1944 drama The Glass Menagerie centres on Tom, a young would-be poet struggling to support his overbearing and sentimental mother and his delicate, obsessive sister.
The play was last seen in the West End in 2007, directed by Rupert Goold. This new production is another Young Vic directorial outing for Joe Hill-Gibbins, who recently directed The Beauty Queen Of Leenane at the venue.
The Glass Menagerie plays from 11 November to 1 January (press night 17 November) and follows On Ageing and Faust in the Young Vic’s 40th birthday season.
CB