The Donmar Warehouse’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat by Lynn Nottage announces casting for the West End transfer to London’s Gielgud Theatre for a limited six-week season, running for 50 performances only from Friday 7 June to 20 July 2019.
Returning from Lynette Linton’s acclaimed original Donmar run, to rejoin the previously announced Martha Plimpton, are: Leanne Best (Jessie), Osy Ikhile (Chris), Wil Johnson (Brucie), Stuart McQuarrie (Stan), Clare Perkins (Cynthia), Sule Rimi (Evan) and Sebastian Viveros (Oscar).
SWEAT has been nominated for the Best New Play award in the 2019 Olivier Awards, with the winner to be announced on Sunday 7 April 2019.
In 2011, Lynn Nottage began spending time with the people of Reading, Pennsylvania: officially one of the poorest cities in the USA. During the following two years, she dug deep into the forgotten heart of middle America, finding a city divided by racial tension and the collapse of industry. Sweat is the Pulitzer Prize-winning play that Lynn Nottage wrote following her experience.
Centred around the friendships of factory workers and set in an all-American bar, the play explores the relationships, resentments and fears of a community left divided by de-industrialisation. Simmering racial tensions and mounting anger lead to a devastating outcome for the residents of Reading, Pennsylvania.
Sweat receives its West End transfer following its sold-out UK premiere at the Donmar Warehouse. Across its West End run, over 350 tickets per performance will be made available at £25 or less.
Leanne Best, Martha Plimpton & Clare Perkins in Sweat
Cast bios
Leanne Best (Jessie) made her Donmar Warehouse debut in Sweat. Her theatre credits include The Human Voice (Gate), Educating Rita, The Matchbox, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Hypochondriac, The May Queen, Our Country’s Good, Fleet Street Nativity, The Way Home, Unprotected, The Morris, Macbeth, Popcorn (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse), The Matchbox (Tricycle), Backbeat (Theatre LA), Damned by Despair (National Theatre), My Zinc Bed (Royal Theatre Northampton), Horse Marines (Plymouth Drum), Drowning on Dry Land (Salisbury Playhouse) and Desperately Seeking Susan (Novello). TV credits include Carnival Row, Tin Star, Cold Feet, Babs, Good Karma Hotel, Black Mirror, Home Fires, Undercover, HG Wells – The Purple Pileus, Line of Duty, From Darkness, Home Fires, The Outcast, Ripper Street, Fortitude, New Tricks, The Driver, Shetland, Lucan, Worricker: Salting the Battlefield, Stepping Up, Good Cop, Moving On, Mobile, New Street Law, Heatwave, Wire in the Blood and Casualty. Film credits include Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, The Infiltrator, Native, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, The Be All and End All and Casbah – A Documentary.
Osy Ikhile (Chris) made his Donmar Warehouse debut in Sweat. His theatre credits include Torn (Royal Court), Sweet Love Remembered (Shakespeare’s Globe) and Your Number’s Up (Roundhouse Theatre). His TV and film credits include The Feed, Black Mirror, The Greatest of All Time, Childhood’s End, The Fear, Fresh Meat, Twenty Twelve, Blackout, Tom and Jenny, Misfits, Phone Shop, Daphne, Sand Castle, Beautiful Devils, Tarzan, Mission Impossible 5, Kill Your Friends, Jet Trash, In the Heart of the Sea, Victim and The Anomaly.
Wil Johnson (Brucie) made his Donmar Warehouse debut in Sweat. His theatre credits include Leave Taking (Bush) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Old Vic), King Lear (Royal Exchange, Manchester), A Wolf In Snakeskin Shoes (Tricycle), Fuente Ovejuna (National Theatre), Redundant (Royal Court), A Mad World My Masters (Shakespeare’s Globe), Serious Money (Birmingham Rep), The Queen and I (Out Of Joint), Torn (Arcola) and the lead in Othello (Royal Lyceum). His TV and film credits include Carnival Row, Outlander, Vera, Waking the Dead, Lewis, The Five and Clocking Off, Moving On, Cracker, Waterloo Road, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Adulthood, Anuvahood, Midnight Breaks, Dead End and Macbeth.
Stuart McQuarrie (Stan) previously performed at the Donmar Warehouse in Sweat, The God of Hell, The Dark and The Life of Stuff. His other theatre credits include Creditors (Edinburgh Lyceum), My Country (National Tour) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (National Theatre). His TV and film credits include Ordeal by Innocence, Outlander, Tennison, Hollow Crown, Dickensian, The Dad’s Army Story, Virtuoso, Another Year, Mr Turner, Harlots, Tennison and Angel Has Fallen.
The U.S. production of Lynn Nottage’s Sweat in 2015
Clare Perkins (Cynthia) made her Donmar Warehouse debut in Sweat. Her theatre credits include Emilia (Shakespeare’s Globe and Vaudeville), Mrs Dalloway (Arcola), Genesis Inc (Hampstead), The Immigrant (Hoxton Hall), Daisy Pulls It Off (Park), Primetime (Royal Court), Roundelay (Southwark Playhouse), The Convert (Gate), Removal Men (The Yard), The House That Will Not Stand, Fabulation, How Long is Never (Tricycle), Welcome To Thebes (National Theatre), Mules (Royal Court) Meridian (Contact Theatre) How To Be Immortal (Penny Dreadful), Little Revolution (Almeida), Our Country’s Good (Nuffield), Generations Of The Dead (Young Vic), Twelfth Night (London Bubble), The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night time (National Theatre/UK Tour). Her TV and film credits include Damned, Shoot The Messenger, Family Affairs, EastEnders, Bullet Boy, The Riots, Men Behaving Badly, Death In Paradise, Clapham Common, Talk To Me, Big Women, Babyfather, Casualty, The Bill, All in The Game, Pigheart Boy, Been So Long, Ladybird Ladybird, Secrets and Lies, Whole New Heart, Hallelujah Anyway, 7 Lives and Blacklands.
Martha Plimpton (Tracey) made her Donmar Warehouse debut in Sweat. Her theatre credits include Other Desert Cities (Old Vic), Company (New York Philharmonic), A Delicate Balance (John Golden, NY), Pal Joey (Roundabout, NY), Top Girls (MTC), Cymbeline, The Coast of Utopia (Lincoln Centre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pericles (Public, NY, Shakespeare in the Park), The False Servant (Classic Stage Co.), Flesh and Blood (New York Theatre Workshop), Boston Marriage (Public, NY), Hobson’s Choice (Atlantic, NY), Hedda Gabler, The Glass Menagerie, Playboy of the Western World, The Libertine (Steppenwolf) and Uncle Vanya, The Heidi Chronicles, The Sisters Rosensweig, Robbers (Seattle Repertory Theater). Her TV and film credits include The Real O’Neals, Younger, The Good Wife, Raising Hope, How To Make It In America, Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: SVU, ER, Hello Again, Company, Pecker, 200 Cigarettes, Eye of God, I’m Not Rappaport, I Shot Andy Warhol, Beautiful Girls, Mrs Parker & The Vicious Circle, Stanley & Iris, Parenthood, Another Woman, Running On Empty, Stars & Bars, Shy People, The Mosquito Coast, The
Goonies, The River Rat.
Sule Rimi (Evan) previously performed at the Donmar Warehouse in Sweat and Measure for Measure. Theatre credits include All My Sons and The American Clock (Old Vic), Love and Information, Desire Under the Elms (Sheffield Theatres), Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre/Australia and New Zealand Tour), Mary Stuart, They Drink It In The Congo (Almeida), The Suicide (National Theatre), The Rolling Stone (Royal Exchange, Manchester/West Yorkshire Playhouse/Orange Tree Theatre), Bordergame (National Theatre of Wales), Babes in the Woods (Rainbow Valley Productions), Othello (Fluellen Theatre Company), Muscle (Shock n Awe), Serious Money (Waking Exploits), Robinson Crusoe, Aladdin (Owen Money Theatre Company) and Stanley’s Magic Lamp and the Heart of Darkness (Twm O’r Nant). Television credits include Death in Paradise, Black Earth Rising, Birds of a Feather Christmas Special, Strikeback, Casualty, Unforgotten, Stella, Mistresses, Crash, Caerdydd, The Black Lion, Y Pris, Scrum IV, Doctor Who, Fondue, Sex and Dinosaurs, The Story of Tracey Beaker, Outside the Rules. Film credits include Ashens & The Quest for the Game Child, Bad Fucking, The Adventurer: Curse of The Midas Box, Silent Night, Bloody Night; The Homecoming, The Machine, Elfie Hopkins and the Gammons, Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection, Eastern Promises, Daddy’s Girl and Starter for Ten.
Sebastian Viveros (Oscar) made his Donmar Warehouse debut in Sweat. His theatre credits include Bob, Balm in Gilead, After Troy, Golden Boy (Drama Centre London), Night of the Iguana (Geneva English Drama Society), The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Ecolint). His TV credits include Our Girl.
