A Little Life - Richmond/Harold Pinter/Savoy/ Cinema

"does any book have more dedicated or devoted readers than a little life" is written in the programme by the social media manager of all people who maybe should look up a certain harry potter and many other books which have dedicated, fanatical fan based and are far more widely known in the general public than a little life.

They play didn't seem like four hours, the acting is superb from all the cast, and Ivo van hove style suits the production and the video wall enchances and support the emotions on stage rather than distracts as it has at times in his other shows.

But I presume the book has much of the narrative and depth and detail this play structure is missing to have made it such an apparent favourite for some people. Things got too preposterous for me by midway of part two and i can't say I ever got involved strongly with the characters at any point .
Biggest plot gap for me was how Jude ended up with such a strong group of friends to support him , literally to a degree they seemed to put their life's on hold to help him. At a time when we are constantly told most people struggle to have one or two close support friends this guy has a complete gang of them despite being emotionally damaged and guarded. Also completely missed what was behind the bond between him and Harold.

Would be interesting to see how they have done the filmed version but I think 4 hours on this play is long enough for me and sadly the news is full enough of too many real life abuse ordeals without watching it being re_enacted as entertainment.

James Norton is definitely an amazing powerful actor, I hope his future roles allow us to see that intensity and emotions play out but from his performance alone and not from a storyline which due to its nature has people already disturbed.

Despite my misgivings above I would recommend the cinema showing if you were not able to see the stage show. It's a challenging watch and as this thread shows has mixed responses but it's also a vivid production and the rare chance to see a star name actor giving a emotionally and full on physical performance far beyond what you would expect.

Jeez! The man’s a machine. I’d need a month of doing nothing after 5 months of ALL 8 times a week!

Just back from the final matinee today. We had two show stops within about 10 minutes of each other, towards the end of act one, for two medical episodes in the dress circle. Was it contagious?! Both resolved fairly quickly, the cast/crew were very professional about it all!

I have read the novel so I knew what to expect but this was such an incredible piece. I would echo everyone saying that the format doesn't allow such an intense and complex story to be told to its full capacity - for example the relationship between Willem and Jude just kind of 'happened' here, but in the book it is obviously more drawn out and therefore the ending has more of an emotional impact. Read the book if you haven't already! But the performances were faultless and I found myself moved to tears from the force of it. Sitting on the front row on the stage was a surreal experience I won't forget in a hurry, closest I'll ever get to being in a West End show!

Didn’t think it happened. Not from Willem’s side. It was obvious from the first instance with his over protectiveness.

Jeez! The man’s a machine. I’d need a month of doing nothing after 5 months of ALL 8 times a week!

nature of the game I guess, he was probably contracted to that for a long time.

It will win, or at least be nominated for many awards, the play itself probably not.

I don't think they have. As far as I know the whole cast did every performance. They had an understudy run-through but that's all.

I was at the final performance this evening and in the speeches they confirmed that none of the 8 leads had missed a show which is amazing. We also had a show stop which lasted about 10 mins just before the interval.

Meh. I wonder if Sir Ian ever had an understudy go on. I think they are required to go on too frequently in some cases. They must have been pumping the vitamins though. It was a physically demanding play.  One show was a scheduled cancellation though so obviously whatever and whoever it referred to they decided to cancel rather than understudy it.

I think given everything about the play there may have been natural human guilt and solidarity with cast members going on too. Having said that emergencies happen at all times in all lives with health scares, family issues, broken bones. Just go lucky.

They did mention there had been an understudy run but I’m not sure when that was. Think it was recent.

For those wondering earlier in the thread where James goes at the end of the show when the black box comes down, Elliot Cowan posted a load of photos on his Instagram last night and one of them was showing James stood on a platform within the black box and held up by wires. He seems to have deleted it now (maybe he was told to remove it to avoid giving away trade secrets), but now we know 🙂

Interestingly, Elliot Cowan has amended a caption tonight, too! Earlier he captioned his latest reel with “last #dayinalittlelife for now…”. Perhaps giving some hope for a Broadway transfer? He’s amended the caption to read “#forever” now but still… exciting!

He's not deleted the pic, it's still in the compilation of his latest post, but he did definitely delete 'for now'... cheeky!

www.instagram.com/reel/Cvp7HZZI7g0/?igshid=MmU2YjMzNjRlOQ==