It’s time to get your leather chaps out because it looks like we’re entering our queer Western era. There’s Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life, starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke (a riff on Almodóvar’s failed pitch to adapt Brokeback Mountain, the Annie Proulx New Yorker short story that was later turned into an Oscar-winning film by Ang Lee). Now, a play based on the story is showing in London and steamy images from rehearsals and performances have (inevitably) made their way to Twitter.
There have been a number of attempts to bring the story to theatres over the years, starting back in 2015, when a play was workshopped but never came to fruition (an opera adaptation was staged in New York in 2014). But now, under the direction of Jonathan Butterell, and with the blessing of Annie Proulx, it’s finally coming. Award nominees Lucas Hedges and Mike Faist will be playing the two lead roles.
While Brokeback’s cinematic adaptation included a wider cast — namely the women in both of the men’s lives — on stage this will be a two-hander. Set in Wyoming in 1963, the play will follow Jack and Ennis, two young men hired to look after the sheep on the namesake mountain one summer and who fall deeply in love, thus returning every summer for 20 years. Jack, played by Jake Gyllenhaal in the film adaptation, will be played by Mike here — the more emotionally open and romantic of the pair. Ennis, famously played by Heath Ledger, will be played by Lucas.
Lucas is perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated performance in Manchester by the Sea, and for his appearance in arthouse movies since his breakout, including Boy Erased and The French Exit. Mike earned a BAFTA nomination for his turn in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, and is set to appear opposite Zendaya and Josh O’Connor in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers later this year. The play will also feature music written by Dan Gillespie Sells, lead vocalist of The Feeling, performed by BRIT Award-winning Scottish musician Eddi Reader.
“Brokeback Mountain has been recreated in several different forms, each with its own distinctive moods and impact,” Annie Proulx said of the production. “Ashley [Robinson]’s script is fresh and deeply moving, opening sight lines not visible in the original nor successive treatments.”
The play is currently showing at London’s new theatre, @sohoplace until 12 August 2023. You can buy your tickets here.