Rosamund Pike to Headline West End Revival of Summer and Smoke

Rosamund Pike will headline a new revival of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke in the West End. The production, directed by Adrian Noble, will open in London at the Apollo Theatre on October 18 with previews from October12.

Set in a small insular town in the Deep South in 1916, Summer and Smoke is a story of smoldering attraction and repressed passion. The tale follows proper young Southern belle, Alma Winemiller Pike, who has long adored John Chris Carmack, the charismatic but dissolute son of her neighbor and the town's respected doctor. As the drama unfolds in this tale of longing and unrequited love, lives are changed in a way that none of those involved could ever have predicted.

Pike was last seen on stage at London's Royal Court and in the West End in Terry Johnson's Hitchcock Blonde. She is known for her roles in films including Pride and Prejudice, The Libertine Best Supporting Actress at the British Independent Film Awards 2005 for her role opposite Johnny Depp and the James Bond blockbuster Die Another Day.

Carmack's theatre credits include the Roundabout's Entertaining Mr. Sloan off-Broadway and The Day I Stood Still at the Lillian Theatre. Film and television credits include The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Just My Luck, Smallville and The OC.

The cast will also feature Sebastian Abineri Flambards, Michael Brown Measure for Measure at Shakespeare's Globe, David Killick His Dark Materials at the National Theatre, Tom Lawrence Richard Eyre's Stage Beauty, Kate O'Toole nominated Best Actress at the Irish Times Theatre Awards for her role as Eleanor in Terry Johnson's Dead Funny, Chris Ravenscroft The Woman in Black in the West End, Hanne Steen Open Ground at Hampstead Theatre and Hannah Stokely The Glass Slipper at Southwark Playhouse.

Williams' classic drama was first performed at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago in 1948. The play was subsequently revived off-Broadway and then made into a 1961 film starring Geraldine Page, Laurence Harvey and Rita Moreno and was nominated for four Academy Awards. Summer and Smoke first opened in the U.K. in November 1951 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith starring Margaret Johnston and William Sylvester and directed by Peter Grenville.

Summer and Smoke will come to London following a short run at Nottingham Playhouse from September 26 to October 7.