Harrowing and heartrending, the filmed version of A Little Life is an affecting, immersive capture of the hit West End play.

Based on the critically acclaimed 2015 bestseller by Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life is an uncompromisingly bleak tragedy that is not for the faint of heart. Adapted for the stage by Yanagihara, Koen Tachelet, and director Ivo van Hove, the epic story unfolds with a non-linear narrative as the appalling treatment endured by Jude St. Francis is gradually revealed. 

The combination of the popularity of the novel, the reputation of avant garde director van Hove, and the star attraction of James Norton (Happy Valley) and Luke Thompson (Bridgerton) led to the play’s initial West End season being such a sell-out smash hit that the producers took the unusual step of booking a subsequent season at a second West End theatre. Rarer still is the play that is filmed and then released in cinemas worldwide.

Designed by van Hove collaborator Jan Versweyveld, the play sits on a tight, almost claustrophobic stage with three rows of audience members sitting upstage and with roaming footage of New York projected on stage left and right. In a touch of West End class, four string players provide live musical accompaniment throughout, adding to the tense atmosphere with hauntingly dissonant music. 

Filming of the play is likely to appeal more to regular cinema goers than to theatre fans seeking to recreate the experience of watching the play in the Savoy Theatre. Extensive use is made of tight close ups and viewing angles are constantly varied, even including birds eye overhead shots. Male nudity is tastefully filmed so as to avoid full frontal exposure. 

Beginning with a thirtieth birthday for one of four close, male, New York-based friends, A Little Life seems for a moment to be another version of The Inheritance. The focus swiftly zooms in on Jude, mysteriously injured lawyer with an enigmatic but endearing smile. Paying full respect to audience intelligence, the story jumps back and forth in time as Jude both recalls and, eventually, recounts the traumatic experiences of his distant and recent past. 

In addition to his close circle of friends, Jude engages with adopted father Harold (Zubin Varla), doctor Andy (Emilio Doorgasingh), counsellor Ana (Nathalie Armin), and various contemptible abusers (Elliot Cowan). Lone female and the play’s most sympathetic voice, Ana is an invention for the stage play, her imagined presence serving to support Jude and drive his courage to reveal the past.

Anger is a near-constant emotion in A Little Life, with frequent scenes of vitriolic shouting meaning that fleeting moments of tenderness are all the more gratefully received. A key achievement of van Hove’s direction and Norton’s towering performance is the searing dramatisation of pain. Jude’s self harm is graphically and unflinchingly displayed, and would certainly trigger sensitive viewers. There is some catharsis as Jude enters “The Happy Years,” but the overall story is bleak indeed.

Given that local subsidised theatre companies seem to have abandoned the once common practice of scheduling hit overseas plays in their annual seasons, the cinema presentation of A Little Life is the best way to experience the Theatrical Event of 2023. Aficionados of the novel should be well prepared for the tone and content of A Little Life and newcomers are sure to find the performances gripping and, ultimately, deeply moving.

A Little Life plays at independent cinemas and Palace Cinemas around Australia from 6 October 2023. For a full list of cinemas and links to tickets, click here.

Photos: Jan Versweyeld