Wow! James Norton naked! Wow! New play by Ivo van Hove. Wow! It’s four hours long. Wow! Wow! Wow! The much anticipated play of the year, an adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s 700-page bestselling novel of 2015 A Little Life, comes to the West End in a huge blaze of publicity.
‘A blistering experience’: A LITTLE LIFE – Harold Pinter Theatre
Anyone who has read the book will know what to expect or if you haven’t then there are enough content warnings to prepare you at least for some of what is to come in Ivo van Hove and Koen Tachelet’s stage adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life. In practice it is a blistering experience that realigns the source material to create a more integrated theatrical experience using plenty of techniques that van Hove more usually applies to working with his Dutch company.
‘Certainly makes a statement’: WHO KILLED MY FATHER – Young Vic Theatre
It is always exciting seeing van Hove’s work for the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam with its cinematic vision encapsulated in theatrical form. Here in Who Killed My Father at the Young Vic Theatre there is both intimacy and scale that neatly capture the contradictions and complexities of loving a family member. The title of this work may not be a question but it certainly makes a statement.
‘Ruth Wilson plays her part to perfection, a masterclass in control and variation’: THE HUMAN VOICE – West End
Ruth Wilson delivers an acting masterclass in Jean Cocteau modernist classic adapted by Ivo van Hove.
‘Ruth Wilson & Ivo van Hove once again prove a dynamic pairing’: THE HUMAN VOICE – West End
Ivo van Hove puts aside his filmic style for an intimate monologue about the end of love. Starring Ruth Wilson, Jean Cocteau’s play The Human Voice, is a sympathetic study of a woman driven to distraction by a final phone call with her lover.
‘Ruth Wilson is strong casting in the central role’: HEDDA GABLER – National Theatre At Home (Online review)
Ruth Wilson is strong casting in the central role with a, for once, restrained Ivo van Hove directing.
‘Something quite different’: ALL ABOUT EVE – West End
This All About Eve is something quite different, same story deliberately new frame with staging that pushes at the boundaries of theatre and film.
‘Deeply morose’: HEDDA GABLER – Touring
Look, I appreciate it’s never rainbows and sunshine in Hedda Gabler but, even by Ibsen’s standards, this National Theatre production is intense and deeply morose.
#ntNetwork – National Theatre ★★★★
Whoever decided to revive Chayefsky’s film via a stage production made an astute choice. Network could hardly be more topical or timely in an era that has become infamous for false truths, ‘fake news’ and where ideas have become truncated and traduced by social media.
HEDDA GABLER – National Theatre
Top director Ivo van Hove makes an uneven Southbank debut, preferring visual beauty to emotional connection.