Tony Award winner Ivo van Hove will direct a stage adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life. Performances will begin September 20 before a September 23 official premiere at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg.
The production marks the 2018–2019 season opener for Netherlands repertory company Toneelgroep Amsterdam, where van Hove has served as artistic director since 2001.
Koen Tachelet will adapt the 2015 novel for the stage, having previously penned the van Hove presentation of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.
The ensemble cast will include repertory members Eelco Smits, Hans Kesting, Maarten Heijmans, Majd Mardo, Marieke Heebink, Ramsey Nasr, and Steven van Watermeulen, as well as Mandela Wee Wee.
The creative team features multiple frequent collaborators of van Hove’s: scenic and lighting designer Jan Versweyveld, costume designer An D’Huys, composer Eric Sleichim, and dramaturg Bart Van den Eynde.
A Little Life explores the complex relationships of four friends—a lawyer, an actor, an architect, and a painter—throughout three decades, from their beginnings as college roommates to professional pursuits and middle-age.
Van Hove, who won a Tony for the 2015 revival of A View From the Bridge, is also at work on a stage adaptation of All About Eve, now slated to premiere in 2019 (Cate Blanchett, who was initially announced to star as Margo Channing, is no longer attached). He will also helm a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni as part of Paris Opera’s 2018–2019 season; the staging is expected to subsequently play New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
