ITA Ensemble

A Little Life

Close
On tour

A Little Life

ITA-ensemble / Ivo van Hove

Shows

Sorry, there are currently no available shows.
A Little Life
ITA Ensemble / Ivo van Hove

No novel has captivated and moved millions of readers during the past few years like A little life by American author Hanya Yanagihara. Ivo van Hove adapted Yanagihara’s novel to theater and created a penetrating performance. Ramsey Nasr won the Louis d'Or (best male performance) for his portrayal of Jude.

Festival Edinburgh International Festival

Location Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Run time 250 minutes, incl. intermission
Genre Theatre
Language Dutch

A little life


In A little life, we watch four men over a period of more than thirty years: lawyer Jude, actor Willem, visual artist JB and architect Malcolm. The story is the history of their friendship, as they remain closely connected with each other during the rest of their lives. They develop their careers in the city where ambition and success are the indicators of a successful life: New York.

The main character is the introverted Jude. His past is wrapped in a veil of mystery. Behind the façade of professional success, he lives with unresolved grief as a result of structural sexual abuse during his childhood. It has left him with extreme distrust and a feeling of worthlessness. He finds release in compulsive automutilation, causing his body to become more and more exhausted.
-|-
How do you live with trauma and pain? Jude has no family, his friends are everything to him. Nevertheless, he finds it impossible to share his past with them. The closer someone gets, the more difficult it is for him to talk about it. For Jude, openness and surrender are equal to abuse. In a constellation like that, intimacy becomes an impossible task. Can friendship provide compensation for the incurred damage? Is it possible to have a romantic relationship without sex? What is love actually able to do?

Jude’s friends are facing a dilemma. How can you help someone who doesn’t want to be helped, while realizing you’re not a real friend if you don’t try to help?

Hanya Yanagihara about A little life

‘Ivo and I talked a lot about A little life. He saw the book as an allegory of good and evil. I didn’t see it like that at all. During our first conversation, he talked about his ideas about how he wants to transport the book to the stage. And that is exactly what I’m curious about when someone wants to adapt the book to another art form; how will they use their medium to tell the story. It has to be an interpretation, not a literal translation. The book requires total surrender from the reader. And it will be the same with the play. This is the case with all of Ivo’s work. The stage adaptation of A little life will invite the audience to be humble, attentive and actively involved. The spectator will be challenged. And he will be rewarded. I hope this play will let people see the book in a new light. Maybe I will also see the book differently. Thanks to adaptations like Ivo’s play, the book and its characters are given a much longer life than I originally expected. I consider that a great gift.’

CAST

Language NP Language no problem Ramsey Nasr Ramsey Nasr
Language NP Language no problem Maarten Heijmans Maarten Heijmans
Language NP Language no problem Majd Mardo Majd Mardo
Language NP Language no problem Edwin Jonker Edwin Jonker
Language NP Language no problem Hans Kesting Hans Kesting
Language NP Language no problem Marieke Heebink Marieke Heebink
Language NP Language no problem Steven Van Watermeulen Steven Van Watermeulen
Language NP Language no problem Bart Slegers Bart Slegers

REVIEWS

Financial Times

'Ivo van Hove's production is as gruelling yet compulsive as Hanya Yanagihara's source novel.'

The New York Times

‘A Little Life’ Comes to the Stage. The Audience Can’t Look Away.'

NRC

'Theater in its most glorious form'

Trouw

'Director Ivo van Hove created a powerhouse'

De Standaard

'Thrilling and moving theater'

Behind the scenes

Go backstage at the rehearsal process of A little life and find out how the show is made.

Ivo van Hove
Director
Ivo van Hove

Ivo van Hove was Artistic Director of Internationaal Theater Amsterdam from 2001 to 2023. As stage director, he signed on for numerous ground-breaking and highly acclaimed productions such as The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) and A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara), as well as the two Shakespeare marathons Roman Tragedies and Kings of War, with which the ensemble toured around the world. After twenty-two years, Van Hove decided to leave ITA and concentrate on his international directing work. He will also head the Ruhrtriennale as Artistic Director from 2024 to 2026.

In the 24/25 season, his productions of Who Killed My Father (Édouard Louis) and Angels in America (Tony Kushner) will be revived.

View Profile

Credits


concept and direction Ivo van Hove
based on the novel by Hanya Yanagihara
translation Kitty Pouwels and Josephine Ruitenberg
adaptation Koen Tachelet
dramaturgy Bart Van den Eynde
scenographer, light design Jan Versweyveld
video Mark Thewessen, Jan Versweyveld
music and sounddesign Eric Sleichim
with Marieke Heebink, Maarten Heijmans, Edwin Jonker, Hans Kesting, Majd Mardo, Ramsey Nasr, Bart Slegers, Steven Van Watermeulen
musicians BL!NDMAN [strings]: Stefanie Van Backlé (viool), Marlon Dek (cello),Caroline Denys (viool), Monica Goicea (altviool), Floor Lecoultre (viool), Suzanne Vermeyen (cello), Femke Verstappen (viool), Iteke Wijbenga (altviool)
costumes An D'Huys
-|-
assistant director Daniël 't Hoen
assistant scenographer Bart van Merode
casting advice Hans Kemna
coproducer GREC Festival, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen
private producer Gert-Jan en Corinne van den Bergh, Hendrik Jan ten Have en Gabriëlla de Rooij, Joost en Marcelle Kuiper
production leader Inge Zeilinga
first stage manager Kevin Cuijvers, Sebastiaan Kruijs, Reyer Meeter
stage manager Pepijn van Beek, Bart Coenen, Sander van Elteren, Zinzi Kemper, Stijn van der Leeuw, David Logger, Timo Merkies, Hans Pieksma, Stephan Pot, Dennis van Scheppingen, Erwin Sterk, Mark Thewessen, Jeffrey van Vloten, Ruud de Vos, Jordi Wolswijk, Paul van der Zouwe
hair & make-up Mirjam Venema
photography Jan Versweyveld
publicity Joris van den Ring-Bax
supported by ammodo

MORE ITA-ENSEMBLE

Language NP Language no problem Client E. Busken ITA Ensemble Theater Client E. Busken
Close Client E. Busken ITA Ensemble / Maria Kraakman
02 Oct '24 to 17 Oct '24
Maria Kraakman made her debut as director with Client E. Busken, a monologue played by Gijs Scholten van Aschat and musician Jip van den Dool. The text is based on the latest novel by Jeroen Brouwers.
Language NP Language no problem Prima Facie ITA Ensemble Theater Prima Facie
Close Prima Facie ITA Ensemble / Eline Arbo
04 Oct '24 to 02 Mar '25
Eline Arbo directs Maria Kraakman in author Suzie Miller's award-winning play. This cutting monologue caused a furor on West End and Broadway. Numerous versions were produced worldwide. Eline Arbo was the first to stage the play in the Netherlands.
Language NP Language no problem The End of Eddy ITA Ensemble Theater The End of Eddy
Close The End of Eddy ITA Ensemble / Eline Arbo
15 Nov '24 to 01 Dec '24
Édouard Louis took the world by storm with his successful autobiographical novel The End of Eddy. Without much frills, the novel tells the life story of a homosexual boy growing up in a homophobic environment.
Language NP Language no problem The Doctor ITA Ensemble Theater The Doctor
Close The Doctor ITA Ensemble / Robert Icke
05 Jan '25 to 19 Jan '25
Robert Icke has a warm heart for the classics, which he adapts in his own personal and radical way. Once again, he is making a contemporary adaptation, this time of Professor Bernhardi by Arthur Schnitzler.
Language NP Language no problem Giovanni's Room ITA Ensemble Theater Giovanni's Room
Close Giovanni's Room ITA Ensemble / Eline Arbo
15 Jan '25 to 02 Feb '25
David awaits the return of his fiancée Hella. But when he meets Giovanni, a charismatic Italian bartender, the two men become entangled in an intense affair. After three months, David's fiancée returns and he is forced to make a choice.
Language NP Language no problem Who Killed My Father ITA Ensemble Theater Who Killed My Father
Close Who Killed My Father ITA ensemble / Ivo van Hove
20 Feb '25 to 02 Mar '25
“Merciless and moving portrait.” - de Volkskrant ★★★★

Ivo van Hove adapted Who Killed My Father, by internationally acclaimed writer Édouard Louis, for the stage. Van Hove turned the very outspoken book into a monologue, especially for Hans Kesting.
Language NP Language no problem The Wall ITA Ensemble Theater The Wall
Close The Wall ITA Ensemble / Eline Arbo
05 Mar '25 to 27 Apr '25
A middle-aged woman concludes, one morning during a weekend at a friends' country house in the Austrian Alps, that she is all alone. She sets out to investigate and, comes across an impenetrable glass wall, which completely isolates her from the rest of the world.
Language NP Language no problem Angels in America ITA Ensemble Theater Angels in America
Close Angels in America ITA Ensemble / Ivo van Hove
11 Apr '25 to 28 Apr '25
In 2008, Ivo van Hove directed a radical Angels in America which Tony Kushner himself, after his passage through Amsterdam, dubbed his favourite version up to then. It is this version that is now being staged again, with some actors from the original cast and some new actors from the ITA Ensemble.
Language NP Language no problem The Hours
on Tour
ITA Ensemble Theater The Hours
Close The Hours ITA Ensemble / Eline Arbo
04 Jul '25 to 06 Jul '25
The stage adaptation of Michael Cunningham's The Hours.