Giovanni's Room
Director Eline Arbo adapts James Baldwin's timeless classic for the stage. A music filled performance about love, identity, and the fear of being oneself. Giovanni’s Room explores themes such as sexuality, internalized homophobia, and societal pressure, posing the question: can you ever feel at home if you’re not allowed to be yourself?
A poignant story of passion, loss, and the struggle between deep desire and societal expectations, based on Baldwin’s masterpiece.
Run time tba
Genre Theatre
Language Dutch
Surtitles English, Thu January 23 & 30
Public rehearsal Wed January 15
In Gesprek Fri January 24 & 31
Opening night Sun January 19
Giovanni's Room
“I am standing by the window of a large house in the south of France as night falls, the night that will carry me into the most terrible morning of my life.”
This is how the story of David, an American in France who reminisces about his time in Paris opens. It is the city of expats, liaisons, and violence. Here, 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.
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Baldwin tells the story of a doomed relationship, a story that explores the conflict between desire, conventional morality, and sexual identity. With his sharp, probing imagination, Baldwin delves into the mystery of love. He paints a picture of the social alienation that is a consequence of a society unable to cope with a different view on sexuality. It creates a deeply moving story of death and passion, that reveals the complexity of the human heart.
ELINE ARBO ABOUT GIOVANNI'S ROOM
“With Giovanni's Room, I am getting the chance to adapt one of my favourite books for the stage. It brims with poetic, poignant images about what it is like to be in search of who you really want to be. The book challenges you to contest pigeonholing. Baldwin portrays the internalised homophobia of the main character, experiencing the societal pressure to be just one 'thing'. At the same time, it deals with the polarisation of artisthood. Baldwin was advised by his publisher and agent Knopf not to publish the book, fearing that a novel with a white protagonist would alienate him from the black community. Baldwin ignored this advice and went on to publish the book with a smaller publisher, convinced that the fight for equality was all one single battle. I find it very inspiring how Baldwin dared to fight for empathy and equality in a radical way. That is a very important and radical counter-force.”
James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (1924-1987) emerged as a leading voice in the social criticism literature of the 20th century. His social consciousness was profoundly shaped by the segregation and poverty of his youth, which would later be poignantly expressed in such classics as Go Tell It on the Mountain and If Beale Street Could Talk.
Seeking solace and creative inspiration, Baldwin found refuge in the bohemian ambiance of artistic Paris. In the cafés of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, he immersed himself in the literary scene and developed lasting friendships with luminaries such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. There, he explored themes of identity and solidarity against the backdrop of a city pulsating with artistic fervour.
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Paris became not only his muse, but also the setting for his groundbreaking novel Giovanni's Room. Baldwin caused outrage by being a black writer who wrote about white homosexuals. For him, however, the issues of racism and homophobia, sexuality and personal freedom were deeply intertwined.
Baldwin's commitment to social justice extended beyond the streets of Paris. He returned to the United States during the tumultuous years of the 1960s civil rights movement. Although he refused the label 'civil rights activist', Baldwin was an inspiration to the movement and a personal friend of Martin Luther King. Books like The Fire Next Time served as a catalyst for change and urged society towards greater understanding and equality.
Eline Arbo is Artistic Director at ITA since September 2023. From 2022 she was already linked to ITA as Associate Artistic Director. From January 2023, Arbo was appointed Ibsen Artist in Residence, an initiative of the Philip Loubser Foundation, which gives directors with an international ambition the opportunity to develop themselves artistically.
In season 24|25, she will create Giovanni's Room (James Baldwin) and The Wall (Marlen Haushofer); re-make The End of Eddy (Édouard Louis) and The Years (Annie Ernaux), which she previously directed elsewhere; and her stagings of The Laws (Connie Palmen), Prima Facie (Suzie Miller), Penthesilea (Heinrich von Kleist) and The Hours (Michael Cunningham) will be reprised.
IN GESPREK
After the performance, come and think, listen and chat at In Gesprek. We invite a guest to further explore the themes of Giovanni’s Room and to exchange experiences. If you have any questions, this is the perfect time to ask them. In Gesprek is free of charge and starts shortly after the performance in one of our foyers, is conducted in Dutch and lasts about half an hour.
Credits
by James Baldwin
director Eline Arbo
dramaturgy Bart Van den Eynde
translation Eefje Bosch & Manik Sarkar
music and sound design Thijs van Vuure
scenography Roel Van Berckelaer
lightning design Varja Klosse
costume design Rebekka Wörmann
assistant director Zorba Huisman, Angelo Ormskerk, Emma Deleu (intern)
assistant music Jonas Meijer (intern)
assistant scenography Leanne Vandenbussche
assistant light Mike Evers
assistant costumes Jelena Bondt
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produced by special arrangement with Concord Theatricals Corporation
private producer Marcelle and Joost Kuiper, Gabriëlla de Rooij and Hendrik Jan ten Have, Jeroen van Ingen and Jaap Kooijman, Bertil van Kaam and Felix van der Heijden
