Suranne Jones goes on a dark journey: Doctor Foster star to play mother of abducted girl, 10, in stage drama

Published: 23:53 GMT, 31 August 2017 | Updated: 01:05 GMT, 1 September 2017

e-mail

View
comments

Suranne Jones will play the mother of an abducted ten-year-old girl in a stage drama with chilling similarities to the Madeleine McCann and Milly Dowler cases

Suranne Jones will play the mother of an abducted ten-year-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-month-old 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.’

The actress, who has won awards for TV hit Doctor Foster (pictured), 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

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 award-winner); 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.

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 movie, the gripping drama Una, is out today) for producers the Young Vic and shown by NT Live at cinemas in the UK and around the world from February 22.

Tickets will be available from September 25.

Sienna Miller (above), Jack O’Connell, Colm Meaney and the company of director Benedict Andrews’ production of Tennessee Williams’s Cat On A Hot Tin Roof will be filmed by Andrews for producers the Young Vic and shown by NT Live at cinemas in the UK and around the world from February 22

Angelina Jolie will introduce her latest movie, First They Killed My Father: Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers, at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend

Angelina's the festival queen

Angelina Jolie will introduce her latest movie, First They Killed My Father: Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers, at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend.

It’s one of several films announced for the four-day event, starting today, and held in an old mining town high up in Colorado’s San Juan mountains.

Francis Ford Coppola will reveal a restored version of his 1984 film The Cotton Club.

It’s set in a legendary night spot in Harlem, but a lot of the performances in the film were cut by investors from Las Vegas. Coppola took $500,000 of his own money — and two years — to painstakingly restore 25 minutes of ‘lost’ footage.

Emma Stone, meanwhile, will attend with the film Battle Of The Sexes, about the historic 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

Stone’s utterly delightful in the picture. Last year, La La Land was launched at Telluride and Emma went on to win the Oscar for best actress.

Other films being shown include director Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete, from Film4, which features an astounding breakthrough performance from 18-year-old Charlie Plummer.

Rosamund Pike and Christian Bale will be making the trek up the mountain, too, with director Scott Cooper’s Western movie Hostiles.