Edinburgh review: A Little Life – Festival Theatre

First published in The Times, Monday August 22 2022

TWO STARS

The Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove is renowned for his stark, uncompromising productions of classic plays, from Greek to Renaissance tragedies and, memorably, works by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. His latest project is an adaptation of a more recent literary phenomenon, A Little Life by the American novelist Hanya Yanagihara, which was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2015.

Review: Antigone – King’s Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival

First published in The Times, Monday August 10 2015

Four Stars

There is something disconcerting about seeing Juliette Binoche, one of the most luminous screen presences of the last quarter century, shrunk to a tiny figure on a wide open stage. Even her director, Ivo Van Hove, can’t quite acclimatise himself to this reduction in scale. He takes more than one opportunity to put her back where she belongs by projecting her iconic image onto the vast screen at the back of the stage.