Obsession
This special international co-production with the Barbican Centre premiered in London in April 2017 with a cast of both English and TA actors. It is performed entirely in English. The role of Gino is played by actor Jude Law who, with numerous extraordinary roles in both theatre (Henry V, Hamlet, Anna Christie) and film (Sherlock, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Side Effects, Cold Mountain), has proven to be one of the leading actors of his generation.
In Obsession, Visconti tells the blood-curdling story through short and brutal scenes of a particular poetic rawness. Is freedom in poverty preferable to bondage that ensures affluence? It makes Obsession a powerful social drama about what passion does to people. How it draws them irresistibly to each other and ultimately leads to a fatal outcome.
Ivo van Hove: direction
Luciano Visconti
Eric Sleichim: music composition and sound design
Jan Peter Gerrits: adaptation, dramaturgy
Simon Stephens: English text version
Jan Versweyveld: scenography, lighting design
An D’Huys: costumes
Tal Yarden: video
Gijs Scholten van Aschat, Halina Reijn, Robert de Hoog: actors TA
Aysha Kala, Chukwudi Iwuji, Jude Law: guest actors
Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Wiener Festwochen: co-commissioner
David Binder Productions, Holland Festival: co-producer
Barbican, Toneelgroep Amsterdam: producer
Harry van den Bergh, Joachim Fleury, East and Marcelle Kuiper: private producer
Press
Agenda
The story
Gino (Jude Law), an attractive drifter, stops at a small roadside restaurant and petrol station. It is run by Hanna (Halina Reijn) and Joseph (Gijs Scholten van Aschat). Hanna is unhappy and lovelessly married to an older man to escape a life of poverty. A passionate relationship develops between her and the tramp. Together they hatch a plan to kill her husband.