Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Jack O'Connell won Bafta's rising star award earlier this year

Actor Jack O'Connell is to play a troubled snooker professional in a new play staged in the sport's spiritual home, Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.

The Crucible hosts snooker's annual world championships as well as being one of the UK's leading theatres.

The worlds of snooker and theatre will meet with the world premiere of The Nap, written by Richard Bean, who is best known for One Man, Two Guvnors.

O'Connell has made his name in films including Unbroken, '71 and Starred Up.

Those performances helped him win the rising star prize at the Bafta film awards earlier this year.

In The Nap, he will take the role of Sheffield-born snooker player Dylan Spokes who, according to The Crucible, has to contend with "his ex-con Dad, local gangster Waxy Chuff and the snooker corruption squad".

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The play will be staged before next year's snooker world championships

The play is described as a "comedy thriller" and will be staged next March, just before the snooker world championships, which take place every April.

The Nap will be directed by actor and The Crucible associate director Richard Wilson. Next week, Wilson will reprise his role as Victor Meldrew in TV sitcom One Foot in the Grave at a one-off fundraising event for the theatre.

The venue's new season also includes new musical Flowers for Mrs Harris, based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Paul Gallico; revivals of A Raisin in the Sun and Waiting for Godot; and the regional premiere of Contractions by Mike Bartlett, who wrote BBC One's recent drama Doctor Foster.

Sheffield Theatres artistic director Daniel Evans said: "This is, without doubt, our boldest season to date. We're announcing seven original productions: three new plays, a new British musical, a regional premiere and two major revivals of 20th Century classics."