Anyone tempted to see this purely to watch Happy Valley’s James Norton getting his kit off might wish to reconsider. I am not a fan of trigger warnings but in this case, they’re essential, we are told to expect “strong language, nudity, sexual violence, physical and emotional abuse, self-harm and suicide”.
Previews have already seen walkouts from audience members who found it too tough to stomach. Guys and Dolls it isn’t.
Jude (Norton) is a successful New York lawyer with an appalling secret.
Traumas from his childhood in foster homes and with predatory monks are indicated by terrible scars on his back, difficulty in walking and frequent episodes of self-harm.
Adopted by a senior lawyer Harold (Zubin Varla) and frequently visited by the ghost of his former social worker Ana (Nathalie Armin), Jude gradually reveals in flashbacks what is fuelling the guilt that drives him to these violent acts.
The litany of horrors, including graphic bloodletting and the “slow drip of misery” (as one character puts it), are mitigated by moments of tenderness.
Director Ivo van Hove distils Hanya Yanagihara’s novel into three and a half hours of utterly compelling theatre to examine a life lived under the scourge of guilt and a self-imposed exile from absolution.
Norton’s courageous performance makes Jude’s torment almost Biblical in this shattering indictment of paedophilia and the physical and psychological scars that result.
This is industrial strength theatre for serious theatregoers.
Harold Pinter Theatre until June 18. Tickets: 0844 871 7627
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