James Norton delivers an incredible performance in adaptation of A Little Life – review
We’ll get this out of the way immediately: A Little Life is a difficult watch. Those familiar with the book will be aware that it explores a number of traumatic themes including child abuse, rape and self-harm; these are not shied away from in this stage adaptation.
An information sheet provided upon arrival at the theatre contains both content warnings and links to resources, including contact information for mental health support for those affected by the show.
Hanya Yanagihara’s novel – regarded by many as a masterpiece – is the original source material for this play. It tells the story of four friends based in New York – Jude (Happy Valley’s James Norton), Willem (Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson), JB (It’s A Sin’s Omari Douglas) and Malcolm (Zach Wyatt).
With the original text weighing in at comfortably over 700 pages, it was inevitable that some edits would need to be made to adapt this for the stage – even though the running time clocks in at comfortably over three and a half hours, there have still been significant edits.
