Cast announced for Robert Icke's Uncle Vanya

Downton Abbey actress Jessica Brown Findlay and Streetcar Named Desire star Vanessa Kirby will join actor Paul Rhys in a new version of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.

Robert Icke's version will begin previews at the Almeida Theatre on February 5 and will run until 26 March. Brown Findlay, last seen on stage in Icke's Oresteia, will play Sonya and WhatsOnStage award-winner Kirby will play Elena.

The rest of the cast include Richard Lumsden as Telegin, Hilton McRae as Serebryakov, Tobias Menzies as Astrov and Ann Queensberry as Nanny. Rhys was previously announced as Vanya.

Icke's radical re-working of Oresteia was a hit with critics at the Almeida earlier this year and transferred to Trafalgar Studios.

Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya is one of the playwright's best-known works and is set on a rural country estate in Russia where quiet family life is disrupted by the arrival of a professor and his young wife. Icke won the Evening Standard Award for best director for Oresteia.

Uncle Vanya will open at the Almeida Theatre on 12 February and runs until 26 March.