Daisy Edgar-Jones has lost her voice. When the 26-year-old, London-born star of Twisters, Under the Banner of Heaven and Fresh, who captivated the nation alongside a then-unknown Paul Mescal in Normal People some four years ago, logs onto our Zoom call she apologies for her croakiness. It’s more than understandable: not only does she have a cold, but last night was also press night for her new play, a buzzy, refreshed production of the explosive Tennessee Williams classic Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Almeida Theatre. Directed by Rebecca Frecknall, it features Kingsley Ben-Adir as the troubled Brick, and Lennie James as his commanding father, Big Daddy, alongside Edgar-Jones as Brick’s sensual, frustrated wife, Maggie.
Almost feline in her movements and feral in her desires, Maggie is eager to have children with her husband, but he is distant, despondent and falling into a drunken stupor. Cue a birthday party for his formidable, swaggering father, where arguments erupt, secrets come out and dangerous new plans are hatched.
Stepping into a part immortalised by a scintillating Elizabeth Taylor in the 1958 film adaptation of the same name – and, in subsequent years, everyone from Scarlett Johansson to Sienna Miller, on stage – Edgar-Jones seems entirely unfazed. From the moment the lights come up, she is an absolute riot – loud, quippy, riotously funny and, in truth, a world away from the softly-spoken, observant loners she’s often played on screen…