'Australian director Benedict Andrews attempts to break the pharaoh-o-meter by parading his male star, young and willing Jack O’Connell (increasingly a Hollywood contender) in the altogether for an inordinate amount of gasp-inducing time... Lights up: water from a freestanding shower cascades down on the 26-year-old O’Connell’s hunched, tattoo’d form (sitting on a raked charcoal-grey carpet) drenching every visible inch, so to speak, aside from a plaster-cast right foot.'
Since first seeing the 1958 film version of Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, I try to check it out, or at least record it, each time it airs on TMC. I fell in love with the film, the dialogue and the incredible performances the first time I saw it just a few years ago. My first viewing in 2013 inspired a FH post about the film, Paul Newman, and the many actors I researched who took on the role of Brick on stage. (A Ton of Bricks)
After watching it again last weekend, I again headed to google to see if any other actors that I knew had taken on the role since my first piece. I was rewarded. The intensely hot actor Jack O'Connell, who I knew mostly from his time on the series Skins, took the stage last year with Sienna Miller in a London production. From all accounts, both actors sizzled, with director Benedict Andrews making the artistic choice to start and end Act one with his Brick (O'Connell) completely naked on stage.
The show begins with Brick sitting on stage under a shower. He stands up, and takes a good minute or two before putting on a towel, a towel which remains his only wardrobe, except again for that leg cast, for the remainder of Act One. The towel comes off at the end of the act when Brick steps into the shower for another shower. ElleUK described Jack's performance as startling, especially moving as the failed athlete's forced masculinity gives way to stifling sadness and repressed homosexuality. 'The transition from an alcohol-induced numbness to a climactic display of vitriol is deeply moving; Jack takes on Brick's sadness with astonishing conviction'
Brick may be the first time O'Connell took it all off on stage, but had some brief nudity on Skins, and showed it all in the 2013 prison drama, Starred Up. (Below) Jack talked about his on stage nudity in an interview last year with Variety.
Did you know you’d have to shower onstage?
In the writing, the shower is offstage. Brick’s first few lines of dialogue would traditionally be offstage. Look, it was a bit of a curve ball. You have to try to get your head around it. I just went with it. I was given the option to wear swimwear, to keep my modesty intact. That’s the easy way out. You think, “When does anyone really shower with underwear on?” I find that more distracting.
Were you nervous?
Not really. I guess I was nervous when I started going nude in rehearsals. I thought: we’re getting close to previews, I might as well start realizing what this is, or how this feels, while I was naked. So yeah, the clothes came off in the rehearsal room. I was grateful for that. By the time the previews were happening, a lot of people in the production had seen what it is like to start the play naked.
Variety
Although Jack's turn on stage as Brick ended late last year, the production was filmed for National Theatre Live and is hitting theatres in February. I am not sure how much of Jack will be shown in the film version of the play but check out more at NT Live HERE: and see if it's playing near you HERE:
Production photography by Johan Persson
Starred Up (2013)
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