A LITTLE LIFE based on the novel by Hanya Yanagihara concept & direction Ivo van Hove with Marieke Heebink, Maarten Heijmans, Hans Kesting, Majd Mardo, Ramsey Nasr, Eelco Smits, Steven Van Watermeulen, Mandela Wee Wee adaptation Koen Tachelet scenography & light Jan Versweyveld costumes An D’Huys dramaturgy Bart Van den Eynde composer Eric Sleichim video Mark Thewessen, Jan Versweyveld music Bl!ndman [strings]: Marlon Dek, Caroline Denys, Monica Goicea, Floor Lecoultre, Suzanne Vermeyen, Femke Verstappen, Iteke Wijbenga supported by Ammodo private producer Gert-Jan and Corinne van den Bergh, Hendrik Jan ten Have and Gabriëlla de Rooij, Joost and Marcelle Kuiper
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No book has captivated and moved millions of readers during the past few years like A Little Life by American author Hanya Yanagihara. In this worldwide bestseller, 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 con nected 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 un resolved grief as a result of emotional neglect and sexual abuse during his childhood. It has left him with extreme distrust and a feeling of worth lessness. 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? Ivo van Hove: ‘Reading A Little Life is much more than just reading a book. It’s a destructive descent into areas of pure pain, pure loneliness, pure helplessness, pure friendship. Chillingly sincere, but also full of love, albeit without any sentimentality, Hanya Yanagihara describes an entire life: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, death. From the first abuse at age nine, Jude lives in that moment of trauma for the rest of his life. A trauma where he is completely alone, feels completely alone. Deliverance is not possible for Jude. His friends do all they can to make Jude happy, but he is no longer able to embrace the good. Love and friendship don’t conquer all. A Little Life poses questions about good and evil, about how to deal with losing whom you really love. But also about the contemporary tyran ny of being happy, about the connection we automatically make between love and sexuality. In A Little Life, sexuality is a destructive power.’ Hanya Yanagihara: ‘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.’ — Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg and Toneelgroep Amsterdam merged on 1 January 2018, and from the 2018-19 season onwards we operate under the name Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA). Our new organization acts as a beacon for contemporary theatre and caters to audiences from Amsterdam and around the world, leading the way at national and inter national levels. We produce a high-quality programme with 600 pluriform national and international theatre and dance performances every year, and social programmes that appeal to a wide range of audiences, bringing them new ways of understanding and seeing the world.
SEASON 19/20 — SURTITLED IN ENGLISH
HET JAAR VAN DE KREEFT (THE YEAR OF CANCER) by Hugo Claus, directed by Luk Perceval TUE 13, WED 14, FRI 16, SAT 17 AUG
DE KERSENTUIN (THE CHERRY ORCHARD)
by Anton Chekhov, directed by Simon McBurney THU 22, FRI 23, SAT 24, TUE 27, WED 28 AUG, THU 9 & 16 JAN
FREUD
after Le Scénario Freud © Éditions Gallimard by Jean-Paul Sartre, directed by Ivo van Hove THU 26 SEP, 3 & 10 OCT
DE THUISKOMST (THE HOMECOMING) by Harold Pinter, directed by Nanouk Leopold THU 17 OCT, 21 & 28 NOV
HET HOUT (THE WOOD)
by Jeroen Brouwers, directed by Michiel van Erp THU 12 & 19 DEC
EEN KLEIN LEVEN (A LITTLE LIFE)
based on the novel by Hanya Yanagihara, directed by Ivo van Hove THU 12 & 19 DEC, 13 & 20 FEB THU 23, FRI 24, SAT 25, SUN 26 APR (ROYAL THEATRE CARRÉ)
VALLENDE MAN (FALLING MAN) by Don DeLillo, directed by Julien Gosselin THU 19 & 26 MAR
KINDEREN VAN NORA (CHILDREN OF NORA) after Henrik Ibsen, adapted & directed by Robert Icke THU 9 APR, 7 & 14 MAY
MEDEA
after Euripides, adapted & directed by Simon Stone THU 28 MAY
OP HOOP VAN ZEGEN (THE GOOD HOPE)
after Herman Heijermans, adapted & directed by Simon Stone fri 12, sat 13, sun 14, wed 17, thu 18, fri 19, sat 20, sun 21 jun more information on ita.nl/en