Dougray Scott Joins Winstone in Tank Drama

Dougray Scott, the Scottish villain from the recent Hollywood blockbuster Mission Impossible 2 returns to the London stage next month for the first time in seven years. Scott will star, with Ray Winstone, in the world premiere of Nick Whitby's To the Green Fields Beyond. Directed by Sam Mendes, the war drama opens at the Donmar Warehouse on 25 September (previews from 14 September) and continues to 25 November 2000.

The production is a return to the stage for Mendes, too, who had phenomenal Oscar-winning success this year with his first film, American Beauty. Mendes, the Donmar's artistic director, had planned - and already begun casting for - a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night for the autumn run, but was so taken with Whitby's script that he changed the theatre's schedule at short notice. Speaking at the time, he said: 'Shakespeare can wait. You have to take advantage of a good and exciting new play like this. It is not every day they land on your desk.'

The drama takes place in the autumn of 1918 and examines the relationships between the men in a tank crew. Members of the multi-racial crew hail from all over the British Empire, including the Caribbean and India, and react differently to the extreme pressures during combat. During the First World War, many Army generals believed that the armoured tank, then a new weapon of war, could break the deadlock of the trenches, but most of them seized up as a result of unforeseen mechanical errors.

Scott was last seen on stage in London in Unidentified Human Remains in 1993. Though his many British television credits include Taggart and Soldier, Soldier, he is becoming increasingly known for his big screen roles in films such as Mission Impossible 2, Ever After, Deep Impact, and the soon to be released Enigma, also starring Kate Winslet.

Fellow film star Winstone's many screen credits include Scum, Quadrophenia, and more recently, Nil By Mouth and The War Zone. His recent stage credits include This Is a Chair and Dealer's Choice. Winstone reportedly withdrew from numerous film projects in order to work with Mendes on To the Green Fields Beyond.

Scott and Winstone are joined in the cast by Finbar Lynch, who received a Tony nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the National Theatre production of Tennessee Williams Not About Nightingales. The production also features Danny Babington, Hugh Dancy, Nini Ganatra, Danny Sapani and Adrian Scarborough.

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