Sex and the City actress Kim Cattrall is to return to the stage for the Old Vic's forthcoming production of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird Of Young. The Liverpool-born actress will play a failing Hollywood star who quits the movie business when her anticipated comeback is a flop, reports the Press Association.

A noted theatre actress, Cattrall appeared as Cleopatra in the Chichester revival of Janet Suzman's production of Antony and Cleopatra last summer. She's spent increasingly more time in the UK since the last Sex and the City movie and told The Independent in June, "After Sex and the City ended I was exhausted and needed time out. My marriage was coming to an end and my job was finished and my father had just been diagnosed with dementia. I thought I just needed to stop...I needed to go home. For me that was England and Canada, and England was where I started working again and I'm so glad I did, I feel replenished and strong. Sometimes you really do need to go home again." The Old Vic's spring schedule is awash with high profile names as artistic director Kevin Spacey steps up his programme at the historic venue. It includes a version of Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy as well as Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing with stage legends James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave. "The Old Vic has always been first and foremost an actors' theatre, a home for great talent and memorable performances," said Spacey, "I am delighted to welcome Lindsay Posner back to our theatre with The Winslow Boy and I know that audiences will be thrilled at the prospect of Kim Cattrall taking on Sweet Bird Of Youth directed by Marianne Elliott, whom we are so excited to welcome for the first time."

Currently showing at the Old Vic is the Trevor Nunn directed Kiss Me Kate, with Alex Bourne, David Burt and Adam Garcia.