West End Production of SUMMER AND SMOKE Must Close 19 January

Sonia Friedman Productions confirms the previously announced end-date of 19 January 2019 for the West End production of Summer and Smoke. Audiences have less than three weeks to catch Rebecca Frecknall's critically acclaimed revival and reinvention of Tennessee Williams' intoxicating and gripping classic. This breathtaking production starring the sensational Patsy Ferran and Matthew Needham completes its highly successful West End run at the Duke of York's Theatre.

The girl who said 'no' she doesn't exist anymore, she died last summer suffocated in smoke from something on fire inside her.

Trapped between desire and a life of obligation, Alma meets John and her world turns upside down.

With 'spellbinding, stripped-back staging' (Financial Times), this intoxicating classic about love, loneliness and self-destruction evokes the simmering passions of a sweltering summer in small-town Mississippi.

The full cast includes: Seb Carrington (Archie Kramer), Nancy Crane (Mrs Winemiller/Mrs Bassett), Patsy Ferran (Alma Winemiller), Eric MacLennan (Papa Gonzales/Vernon), Forbes Masson (Rev Winemiller/Dr Buchanan), Matthew Needham (John Buchanan), Tok Stephen (Roger Doremus/Dusty) and Anjana Vasan (Nellie/Rosemary/Rosa/Pearl).

Summer and Smoke is designed by Tom Scutt, with lighting by Lee Curran, sound by Carolyn Downing, composition by Angus MacRae and casting by Julia Horan. The Almeida Theatre production of Summer and Smoke is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Scott M.Delman/Patrick Gracey, Paula Marie Black, David Mirvish, Tulchin Bartner Productions.

Tennessee Williams, whose plays include The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth, transformed the American stage through his poetic writing and provocative subject matters. Williams was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards, three Drama Critic Circle Awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Rebecca Frecknall (Director) is Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre and was previously on the Almeida's Resident Director Scheme supported by the Eranda Rothschild Foundation. Following Summer & Smoke, Rebecca's next production at the Almeida is Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, in a new adaptation by Cordelia Lynn, which opens in April 2019. Rebecca worked as Resident Director on Ink at the Almeida/Duke of York's Theatre and Movement Director on Albion. Prior to the Almeida, she was Resident Director at Northern Stage from 2015-2016 after winning the acclaimed RTYDS Bursary. During this time she directed Idomeneus; What Are They Like?, Educating Rita (for Durham Gala) and Julie by Zinnie Harris. Before taking up this role, she worked as a freelance Director in London and has worked with the National Theatre, RSC and Young Vic. She was the 2012 recipient of the National Theatre Studio's Resident Director Bursary and was awarded one of the Young Vic's Jerwood Assistant Director Bursaries in 2011.

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