Must see: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

A revival hot enough to drive you to drink

The ceiling fan stirs the thick soup of the delta night air in the bedroom of the colonial mansion house, where the pent-up frustrations of dysfunctional family life seethe until you have to stop your hand reaching for a whisky sour to try and cool things down.

After three hours in the company of Sarah Esdaile's skilful revival of Tennessee Williams' classic of southern discomfort, it came as a surprise to step out into the chill air of a Leeds' evening – a testimony to the transporting powers of top-class theatre.

Zoe Boyle is superb as Maggie, oozing sexiness and crackling with desperate hilarity as she strives to coax her opted-out husband back to life.

Jamie Parker plays failed athlete Brick with injured brilliance, though he and Maggie are just one corner of a triangle of vividly painted relationships.

Esdaile's production of Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea did not please all the critics last year, but few will find fault with this.

(0113 213 7700; wyp.org.uk) to 27 Oct