Full cast and creative team announced for world premiere stage adaptation of Annie Proulx’s BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

Completing the creative team alongside the previously announced Tom Pye (Set & Costume Design), David Finn (Lighting Design), Christopher Shutt (Sound Design) are Shaheen Baig (Casting Director), Tommy Ross-Williams (Intimacy Director), Kevin McCurdy (Fight Director), Phil Wilding (Production Manager), Zeb Lalljee (Costume Supervisor), Sam Cox (Wigs Maker/Supervisor), Lily Mollgaard (Props Supervisor), and Mary Irwin and Ben Furey (Vocal/Dialect Coach).

Brokeback Mountain @sohoplace opens on 10 May, with press night on 18 May, and runs for a limited season until 12 August 2023.

Wyoming 1963: a wild landscape where people live in extreme rural poverty in tight, insular and conservative communities. When Ennis and Jack take jobs on the isolated Brokeback Mountain, all their certainties of life change forever as they flounder in unexpected emotional waters of increasing depth. Dan Gillespie-Sells beautiful Country and Western songs weave heartbreakingly through this intense tale of an unresistible and hidden love spanning twenty years and its tragic consequences.

This is a play with original music by Dan Gillespie Sells, performed by the extraordinary singer, Eddi Reader, joined by her onstage Country and Western band: Sean Green (piano/MD), Meelie Traill (upright bass), Julian Jackson (chromatic harmonica), BJ Cole (pedal steel guitar).

Emily Fairn makes her stage debut as Alma. Her television credits include Rain Dogs and The Responder; and is appearing in the forthcoming film, Chuck Chuck Baby. She trained at Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Mike Faist plays Jack and was most recently seen as Riff in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, for which he received a BAFTA award nomination. He will next be seen in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers for MGM and Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders for New Regency. Mike originated the role of ‘Connor Murphy’ in the international megahit Dear Evan Hansen, which earned him a Tony Award Nomination, Grammy Award and Emmy Award. Additional New York theatre credits include Steven Levenson’s Days of Rage (Second Stage), A Month in the Country (Classic Stage Co.) and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate (Signature). Additional films include Fritz Böhm’s Wildling, The Grief of Others (both premiered at SXSW), The Atlantic City Story and upcoming indie Pinball: The Man Who Saved The Game.

Lucas Hedges plays Ennis. His credits include Manchester by the Sea (Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lady Bird, Mid 90s, Boy Erased (Golden Globe Nomination for Best Actor), Ben is Back, Honey Boy, Waves, Let Them All Talk, and French Exit. Hedges can next be seen in John Ridley’s upcoming Shirley. He also appeared in BJ Novak’s Anthology Series The Premise in the episode entitled The Ballad Of Jesse Wheeler. Stage credits include Yen (Lucille Lortel Nomination for Best Actor) at MCC, And Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery at the Golden Theater with Elaine May, Michael Cera and Joan Allen.

Paul Hickey plays Older Ennis. Theatre includes Waste, Our Class, Children of the Sun, The Playboy of the Western World, Romeo and Juliet, Peer Gynt (National Theatre), Fewer Emergencies, Bang Bang Bang, Crazyblackmuthafukinself, O Go My Man, Who Cares (Royal Court Theatre), Macbeth, The Deep Blue Sea (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Merchant of Venice (RSC, World Tour), Incognito and Drink Dance Laugh Lie (Bush Theatre), Little Light (Orange Tree Theatre), In The Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play) (The Ustinov), Fred’s Diner, Wallenstein (Chichester Festival Theatre), Ghosts (Arcola Theatre), Pentecost, In a Little World of Our Own (Donmar Warehouse), Helen and I (Druid), Red Roses and Petrol, Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Ash Fire (Tricycle Theatre), Dealer’s Choice and My Night With Reg (Birmingham Rep), The Last Yankee (The Print Room), The Silver Tassie, The Plough, The Stars (Abbey Theatre). Television includes Red Rock, House of the Dragon, and plays Gary in Apple TV’s New 7-Part thriller, Hijack with Idris Elba, to be released This Summer. Other television includes Catherine The Great, The Last Tsars, Three Girls, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Doctor Who, Father Ted, Nuremberg , Whitechapel, Sunshine, The American, Critical, Doctors, Friends and Crocodiles, The Governor, Murder Squad, Rebel Heart and The Informant. Film includes 100 Streets, Bitter Harvest, Saving Private Ryan, War Machine, Noble, The Matchmaker, Though The Sky Falls, Nora, Spin The Bottle, Moll Flanders, The General, On The Edge and Ordinary Decent Criminal.

Martin Marquez plays Joe/ Bill/ Jack’s Father. Theatre credits include Othello, Husbands & Sons, Love’s Labours Lost, Mother Courage and Her Children (National Theatre), Leopard (Rose Theatre), Guys & Dolls, Blasted (Sheffield Theatres), Sweet Charity, Fool For Love, Front Page (Donmar Warehouse), Still Alice, The Crucible, Don Juan, Of Mice and Men (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Much Ado About Nothing, Imogen (Shakespeare’s Globe), This House, Boeing Boeing (UK tours), Before I Leave (National Theatre Wales), Ah, Wilderness (Young Vic), From Here to Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), 4 Knights In Knaresborough (Tricycle Theatre), Anything Goes (National Theatre/Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Brothers Maquez (Soho Theatre), Cleansed, Identical Twins (Royal Court Theatre), Flesh & Blood, Jude The Obscure, Private Lives (Method & Madness), Gondoliers, I Caught My Death in Venice, Insignificance, Pal Joey (Chichester Festival Theatres), Snowball (Hampstead Theatre). Television credits include Kate and Koji, The Chelsea Detective, Dead Pixels, Bounty Hunters, The Crown, Modus, Decline and Fall, Suntrap, The Javone Prince Show, The Job Lot, Woody, Vera, Knifeman, Benidorm, The Whale, Twenty Twelve, Falcon – Blind Man of Seville, Holy Flying Circus, New Tricks, Hotel Babylon, Lead Balloon, Elizabeth, Empire, Dirty Tricks, The Plastic Man, Murder Most Horrid, The Bill and In Suspicious Circumstances. Film credits include: 7 Hours on Earth, The Mercy, After Louise, Girl on a Bicycle, A Louder Silence, Les Miserables and The Business.

Eddi Reader performs as the Balladeer / Jack’s Mother. Celebrating over 40 years as a live performer, she was first brought into the limelight as front woman for Fairground Attraction, who’s #1 single, Perfect and parent album, First of a Million Kisses, both topped the U.K. charts and the charts in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, it was Eddi’s subsequent solo albums that signaled her ability to assimilate different musical styles and make them very much her own. Notably, The Songs of Robert Burns (2003) is a timeless interpretation showcasing the poems of Scotland’s national bard and gained her Five honorary degrees from Strathclyde University, Caledonia University, Stirling university, Edinburgh university and Paisley University, plus an MBE for outstanding contributions to the Arts.

Understudies: Rob Alexander-Adams (Understudy Joe Aguirre/Bill/Jack’s Father/Older Ennis), Tom Mahy (Understudy Jack/Ennis) and Sophie Reid (Lureen and Waitress/Understudy Alma/Understudy Balladeer & Jack’s Mother).