Lesley Manville and Anna Maxwell Martin to Star in Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County

Melting Pot and Second Half Productions are thrilled to announce that the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning sensation August: Osage County will return to London’s West End in 2027 in the play’s first major revival. Starring two-time Olivier Award winner and 2026 Tony Award Best Actress winner, Lesley Manville as Violet Weston, alongside two-time BAFTA TV Award winner Anna Maxwell Martin as Barbara Fordham.

Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning landmark family drama returns to the stage for a strictly limited 12-week season at the Noël Coward Theatre (A Delfont Mackintosh Theatre) from Monday 18 January – Saturday 10 April 2027, directed by Jeremy Herrin whose award-winning work includes People, Places and Things and Wolf Hall.

Tickets go on general sale at 12noon, Friday 17 July. See www.augustosagecountyplay.com for tickets.

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

Widely regarded as one of the defining plays of the 21st century, August: Osage County was first performed by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre company in 2007 – of whom Tracy Letts remains a long-time member – before successful engagements on Broadway and at London’s National Theatre.

After a clutch of award wins, Letts adapted his play into the 2013 film directed by John Wells, featuring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts as part of its magnificent ensemble cast. Both earned Academy Award nominations for their performances.

The play has earned international acclaim for its fearless exploration of family, addiction and grief. Its blend of pitch-black comedy and devastating drama has made it a modern classic, celebrated by critics and audiences around the world.

Lesley Manville says: “I’m delighted to be taking on August: Osage County with Jeremy Herrin directing. It’s an epic piece of American literature written by the truly great Tracy Letts. It has not been seen in London for almost 20 years, so I cannot wait to bring this complex, funny, tragic, ultimate family saga to the West End and create the matriarch, Violet Weston.”

Director Jeremy Herrin continues: “August: Osage County is one of the great plays of our time, and it firmly places Tracy Letts as heir to O’Neill, Miller and Williams in the continuum of the best American playwrights. It’s a darkly funny and gripping family drama that transcends its form. As a brilliant actor himself and long-standing member of Steppenwolf, Tracy knows how to write for actors. I’m excited to bring together a fantastic ensemble for the first major revival of this play.

I’m thrilled to be reunited with Lesley Manville after her Tony Award win, and I can’t wait to see her square up against Anna Maxwell Martin, whose work I’ve long admired. I’ve loved this play since I saw it on Broadway in 2008, and I can’t wait to explore all its twists and turns in the Noël Coward Theatre, the perfect space for this searing and epically entertaining show.”

Producers Simon Friend and Hanna Osmolska, along with Second Half Productions, conclude: “August: Osage County sits comfortably alongside the most established classics of American theatre. As this landmark play has only been presented in London for a short run two decades ago, it’s an honour to present its first major revival, led by two of the UK’s finest actors. The word ‘event’ is overused, but this production very much feels like one.”

Lesley Manville plays Violet Weston. Lesley is a multi-award-winning stage, film and television actress, known for her Tony award-winning performance for Jocasta in Oedipus on Broadway, Emmy and BAFTA-nominated role as Princess Margaret in The Crown and her Academy Award and BAFTA-nominated role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Phantom Thread.

Her recent theatre work includes her role in Oedipus on Broadway. She won both an Olivier and Critics’ Circle Award for Best Actress in the West End last year for the London Wyndham’s Theatre run in 2025, in Robert Icke’s acclaimed adaptation. Lesley has just completed an on-stage run of Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National Theatre in London.

Other big screen roles include Mrs Harris Goes To Paris, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. Upcoming roles include Jack of Spades (2027) and Winter of the Crow (summer 2026). For Television, she will reprise her role as Susan Ryeland in the third and final instalment of Antony Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland Murder trilogy, called Marble Hall Murders, as well as her BAFTA-nominated role in the BBC’s award-winning Sherwood for a third season.

Lesley has worked extensively with director Mike Leigh. Most notably on Another Year, for which she won the prestigious NBR Best Actress Award, a Critics’ Circle Award and received BAFTA and BIFA nominations. Other films with Mike Leigh are All Or Nothing (Critics Circle Best Actress Award), Topsy-Turvy, Mr Turner, High Hopes,

Secret and Lies, Vera Drake and Grown Ups. Other films include Back To Black, The Critic, Ordinary Love, Let Him Go, Misbehaviour and both Maleficent films.

Amongst Lesley’s extensive television career, Lesley also starred in the BBC’s Mum, winning her an RTS Comedy Performance Award and 2 BAFTA nominations. Other TV includes Citadel, Magpie Murders, I Am Maria, Harlots, Save Me Too, Talking Heads, World on Fire, North and South, Cranford and Other People’s Children and Bodily Harm, receiving RTS Best Actress nominations for both. TV roles yet to be released include Moonflower Murders and the second instalment of Citadel for Amazon.

Theatre credits include: Ghosts (Almeida, West End and BAM New York) for which she won a Best Actress Olivier Award and Critics Circle Award. She also received Best Actress Olivier nominations for Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bristol Old Vic, Wyndham’s, BAM New York and LA) and Grief (National Theatre). Other recent theatre includes The Visit at the National Theatre and Talking Heads at The Bridge.

Lesley was appointed an OBE in 2015 and promoted to CBE in 2021.

Anna Maxwell Martin plays Barbara Fordham. Anna’s prolific career has earned her two BAFTA awards—Best Actress for Bleak House and Poppy Shakespeare—alongside four further nominations, including Best Female Comedy Performance for the hit BBC series Motherland.

Her most recent BAFTA nomination recognised her extraordinary portrayal of Delia Balmer in ITV’s Until I Kill You, which The Guardian hailed as “the best performance of her career.” For this role, Anna also won the International Emmy Award for Best Performance by an Actress, as well as a BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress.

Anna stars in the Apple TV+/Sony series Star City, which premiered globally at the 2026 Cannes International Series Festival ahead of its transmission on 29 May 2026.

She has recently wrapped on the independent feature film The Worst. Directed by Simon Woods.

Her extensive theatre work includes leading roles in His Dark Materials, Consent, Honour and Three Sisters all at the National Theatre, Constellations for the Donmar Warehouse in the West End and in productions at the Almeida, The Royal Court, The Young Vic and The Old Vic.

Tracy Letts is a multifaceted award-winning actor and playwright. Letts will next be seen in Karim Aïnouz’s thriller Rosebush Pruning (July 24, 2026), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, as well as Amazon MGM Studios’ I Play Rocky (Nov. 13, 2026), Netflix’s limited series East of Eden, Guy Nattiv’s thriller Harmonia (Jan. 8, 2027) for Bleecker Street, Apple’s sci-fi action-thriller Liminal, and Netflix’s “The God of the Woods.”

Letts received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play August: Osage County and a Tony Award for his portrayal of George in the revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? He has written the screenplays of three films adapted from his own plays: Bug and Killer Joe, both directed by William Friedkin and August: Osage County, directed by John Wells. Bug was recently revived on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Letts is currently working with James Taylor on writing the book for the new stage musical Fire & Rain.

Recently, Letts was seen starring in Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite. The Netflix thriller premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was released in theatres in October 2025. Also in the fall of 2025, he starred alongside Ethan Hawke in FX’s western-noir drama, The Lowdown.

Previously, Letts was seen in Columbia Picture’s Saturday Night alongside Lamorne Morris, Nicholas Braun, Rachel Sennott, Kaia Gerber, and more. Letts was also seen in psychological thriller McVeigh opposite Alfie Allen and Ashley Benson.

In August 2023, Letts starred in the second season of HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty as Jack McKinney for which he earned an Emmy Award nomination.

Letts’ Tony-nominated play The Minutes made its return to Broadway in April 2022. The play, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, shows the inner workings of a city council meeting in the fictional town of Big Cherry. Other recent stage projects include Letts’ play Linda Vista, which saw a successful limited run at Broadway’s Hayes Theatre in late 2019.

Letts starred in and also penned the screenplay for the film adaptation of A.J. Finn’s best-seller, The Woman in the Window, which was released on Netflix in 2021.

In 2019, Letts was seen portraying Henry Ford II in James Mangold’s Academy Award-nominated racing drama Ford v Ferrari, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He also starred in the Academy-nominated and critically acclaimed adaptation of Greta Gerwig’s Little Women.

In 2017, Letts appeared in Steven Spielberg’s The Post alongside Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. The film was selected as the Best Film of 2017 by the National Board of Review and nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture and for a Critics’ Choice Award in the category of Best Acting Ensemble.

Also in 2017, Letts received critical acclaim for his performance opposite Saoirse Ronan in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird. Lady Bird was selected as one of the Top Ten Films of 2017 by the National Board of Review, nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award in the category of Best Ensemble and an Oscar in the category of Best Film.

Additional film credits include Eric LaRue opposite Judy Greer, Alexander Skarsgard, Alison Pill, Kate Arrington, Paul Sparks and Annie Parisse; The Lovers with Debra Winger which was nominated for a 2018 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay; Antoni Campos’ biographical drama Christine, Indignation, James Schamus’ directorial debut; 20th Century Studios thriller Deep Water opposite Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck and the Oscar nominated film The Big Short directed by Adam McKay.

On the small screen, Letts starred in the second season of HBO’s Divorce alongside Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Molly Shannon, and Talia Balsam. In 2013 and 2014, Letts played CIA Director Andrew Lockhart on Showtime’s Homeland. The cast was nominated for a SAG Award in the category of Best Drama Ensemble in 2013.

Director Jeremy Herrin’s credits include: Amadeus (New Theatre Cardiff, Noël Coward); Middlemarch (RSC); Every Brilliant Thing (Hudson Theatre, New York/@sohoplace); Guess How Much I Love You (The Royal Court); The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (UK Tour/@sohoplace/Chichester Festival Theatre);Grace Pervades (Theatre Royal Haymarket/Theatre Royal Bath); Fool For Love (Steppenwolf, Chicago); People, Places and Things (Trafalgar Theatre/National Theatre/ Headlong/UK tour/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Wyndham’s Theatre); A Mirror (Trafalgar Theatre/Almeida); Ulster American (Riverside Studios); Best of Enemies (Young Vic/West End, South Bank Show Award for Best Theatre Production); All My Sons (The Old Vic); The Visit, or the Old Lady Comes to Call; The Plough and the Stars; Statement of Regret (National Theatre);This House (National Theatre/ Chichester Festival Theatres/ West End); Labour of Love (Olivier Award for Best Comedy); The Nether; That Face; South Downs; Absent Friends; Death and the Maiden; The Glass Menagerie (West End); Wolf Hall; Bring Up the Bodies (RSC/West End/Broadway, Evening Standard Award for Best Director); Junkyard; The Absence of War; The Nether(Headlong); Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (International Tour); The Tempest; Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Almost Famous (Old Globe, San Diego); Noises Off(Lyric Hammersmith/ West End); Haunted Child; The Heretic; Kin; Spur of the Moment; Off the Endz; The Priory (Olivier Award for Best Comedy); Tusk Tusk; The Vertical Hour; That Face (Royal Court); South Downs; Uncle Vanya (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead Theatre); Marble (The Abbey, Dublin); The Family Reunion (Donmar Warehouse); Blackbird (Market Theatre, Johannesburg).

Jeremy Herrin was previously Artistic Director of Headlong, Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Court and is a Founding Director of Second Half Productions.

August: Osage County is produced by Simon Friend & Hanna Osmolska for Melting Pot and Second Half Productions.