A Little Life: Overwhelming evening in the theater

I'm looking forward to reading more about your thoughts on the play. I looked up a review from The Guardian. The headline is "four hours of brutality and misery, but for what?"


www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/mar/06/a-little-life-review-four-hours-of-brutality-and-misery-but-what-for

That review is from the Dutch-language version that played in Australia. It played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as well, but I just can't see people appreciating this particular play in Dutch, with super titles.

It's a tough play to watch under any circumstances, so seeing it in English is important. It has now transferred to the West End, it will be interesting to see the reviews. I think it's still in previews and the opening is April 5. I expect reviews to be all over the place!






 

So I found the play to be incredibly powerful, well written, and brilliantly acted. It focuses on four friends in New York City, one of whom (the appropriately named Jude St. Francis) has had such a traumatic childhood/youth, that he harms himself and gets involved in abusive sexual relationships (as the abused). He cuts himself throughout the play, and the audience sees the blood dripping on to the stage floor. It is made very clear that his current trauma is caused by his early life. 

To give one example: As a boy in a school run by monks (who abused Jude sexually), Jude steals a cigarette lighter. When he is found out, one of the monks pours olive oil on his hand and sets it aflame with the lighter. Decades later, during the time of the play, Jude promises his boyfriend that he won't cut himself, while the boyfriend is away. Instead, Jude pours olive oil on his hand and sets it alight. But most of the self harm is inflicted by knives and razor blades. The play makes clear, in the course of the action, which moves back and forth to various periods in Jude's life, that the brutality he experienced has led to his compulsion to self harm. There are a couple of scenes of abuse and violent sex that are unbearable to witness. Norton bravely plays many of the scenes in the nude. There is one scene where he is beaten, forced to strip, then dragged out onto the streets of New York stark naked.

Yet there is beauty in this play, even though the ultimate result is a character who simply wants to die. He's a good person, and the people who love him try to help him, in the end, to no avail. The audience was rapt. Although I saw people turn away at certain points, everyone seemed to return after the interval.

A Little Life played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Dutch several months ago, prompting The New York Times critic to ask: "How much suffering can the protagonist -- and the audience -- endure?" It also played in other parts of the world in Dutch, where I believe it received mixed reviews. But this is not a play to see in Dutch with super or subtitles. What I saw was one of the premiere performances in English. It has now moved from the Richmond Theatre, where I saw it, to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End, after which it will play at the Savoy Theatre for a month.

What I was not aware of when I saw the play was that James Norton is pretty severely diabetic. They have to keep insulin and various sugar snacks around the set. It's hard to imagine an actor so challenged playing this role once, let alone twice on matinee days.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/mar/19/james-norton-interview-i-was-given-a-hand-of-aces

Thanks for coming back and posting your thoughts on the play, Swithin. I doubt many of us will have the opportunity to see it in person but it was interesting to read about it.

That does sound fascinating. It must be a little daunting for the actors to play such famous actors with very distinctive voices. I can see Mark Gatiss as Gieldud.

He's playing that role in London. 

www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1057331-james-norton-leaks-forced-london-theatres-to-consider-phone-ban