SURANNE ON A DARK JOURNEY
SIENNA MILLER, Jack O’Connell, Colm Meaney and the company of director Benedict Andrews’ sizzling production of Tennessee Williams’s Cat On A Hot Tin Roof — at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue until October 7 — will be filmed by Andrews (his first m
Suranne Jones will play the mother of an abducted tenyear-old girl in a stage drama with chilling similarities to the Madeleine McCann and Milly Dowler cases.
The actress, who has won awards for TV hit Doctor Foster, will play nancy, a grieving mother whose daughter has gone missing, in a revival of Bryony Lavery’s acclaimed 1998 play Frozen, which will run at the Theatre royal Haymarket from February 9.
Jonathan Munby will direct, and told me he had suggested Jones should read Madeleine, Kate McCann’s account of her daughter’s disappearance ten years ago, and My Sister Milly, Gemma Dowler’s recently released book about her sister’s kidnap and murder 15 years ago.
The actress (back on BBC1 in Series 2 of Doctor Foster next week) has an 18-monthold son, and Munby said she felt an ‘immediate connection’ when she read the script for Frozen. ‘I think she’s taking it on with some trepidation, too,’ the director added.
‘ She’s aware of the emotional journey she’ll need to go on and dark places she has to tap into.’
When I asked if Jones would meet McCann and Dowler family members, Munby was cautious in his reply. ‘There are possibilities,’ he said. ‘There are people who have experience of what these characters have gone through. We want to do them justice, and tell the story accurately.’
They have chosen the right leading lady: Jones’s ability to convey empathy is one of the secrets of her success.
I saw a superb production of Frozen at the national Theatre in 2002, a few years after its premiere at Birmingham rep. anita Dobson gave a shattering portrait of a woman who thought her life was over after her child’s abduction. But over the course of 20 years, she finds extraordinary strength within herself.
although the play deals with the darkest of subjects, it’s flecked with wit. When we meet the three main characters — nancy; a seemingly ordinary man called ralph (to be played by Jason Watkins, another awardwinner); and an american psychologist (yet to be cast) — we have no idea who they are. But slowly their identities are revealed, and we’re drawn into a story that will, as Munby said, ‘fascinate and provoke’ us.
Lavery will be present during rehearsals to study her work with ‘ fresh eyes’, Munby said. She may make the odd tweak, but will not update the piece, which is set in an era before mobile phones and the internet.
a film version is in an early stage of development, though Munby is not involved. He’s busy rehearsing Ian McKellen as King Lear for the Chichester Festival Theatre, and involved in the South african musical King Kong, about a boxer, which is touring South africa at the moment. ‘It’s definitely coming to London,’ Munby promised.