Lesley Manville to star in August: Osage County in the West End

Lesley Manville and Anna Maxwell Martin are to lead the first major West End revival of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning modern classic August: Osage County. The production plays a strictly limited 12-week season at the Noël Coward Theatre from 18 January to 10 April 2027.

Two-time Olivier Award winner and 2026 Tony Award winner Lesley Manville (Oedipus, The Crown, Phantom Thread) takes the central role of the fearsome family matriarch Violet Weston, opposite two-time BAFTA winner Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland, Until I Kill You) as her daughter Barbara Fordham. It’s directed by Jeremy Herrin, whose acclaimed work includes People, Places and Things and Wolf Hall.

Following a sudden family crisis, the fiercely dysfunctional Weston family reunites at their Oklahoma home, where old wounds reopen and long-buried secrets come to light. By turns darkly funny and deeply moving, Letts’ modern masterpiece is packed with unforgettable characters, blistering dialogue and explosive family truths.

First performed by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in 2007 before acclaimed runs on Broadway and at London’s National Theatre, it was adapted into the 2013 film starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, both of whom earned Academy Award nominations.

Manville said she “cannot wait to bring this complex, funny, tragic, ultimate family saga to the West End,” noting the play “has not been seen in London for almost 20 years.” Herrin added that it “firmly places Tracy Letts as heir to O’Neill, Miller and Williams,” and that he was “thrilled to be reunited with Lesley Manville after her Tony Award win.“