BAMbill
A Little Life
DATE:
Oct 20—29, 2022
LOCATION:
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
RUN TIME:
4 hr 10 min, with intermission
Leadership support for BAM Access Programs provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation
Leadership support for programming in the Howard Gilman Opera House provided by:
Leadership support for theater at BAM provided by The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.; The SHS Foundation; and The Shubert Foundation, Inc.
Additional support provided by Dutch Culture USA at the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
A Little Life
Based on the novel by Hanya Yanagihara
Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
Concept and direction by Ivo van Hove
Jude Ramsey Nasr
Willem Maarten Heijmans
JB Majd Mardo
Malcolm Edwin Jonker
Caleb, Luke, Traylor Hans Kesting
Ana Marieke Heebink
Harold Jacob Derwig
Andy Bart Slegers
concept and direction Ivo van Hove
based on the novel by Hanya Yanagihara
translation Kitty Pouwels and Josephine Ruitenberg
adaptation Koen Tachelet
dramaturgy Bart Van den Eynde
scenographer, light design Jan Versweyveld
video Mark Thewessen, Jan Versweyveld
music and sound design Eric Sleichim
titles Erik Borgman
musicians BL!NDMAN [strings]: Stefanie Van Backlé (violin), Marlon Dek (cello), Monica Goicea (viola), Femke Verstappen (violin)
costumes An D'Huys
assistant director Daniël 't Hoen
assistant scenographer Bart van Merode
casting advice Hans Kemna
coproducer GREC Festival, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen
private producer Gert-Jan en Corinne van den Bergh, Hendrik Jan ten Have en Gabriëlla de Rooij, Joost en Marcelle Kuiper
production managers Kiki Meijerhoven and Michiel van Schijndel
head of technical staff Reyer Meeter
stage manager Stijn van der Leeuw
crew Pepijn van Beek, Adriaan Beukema, Yannick Bruine De Bruin, Rinse de Jong, Paul Meijer, Dennis van Scheppingen, Erwin Sterk, Mark Thewessen, Jip van ’t Veer, Ruud de Vos
hair & make-up Mirjam Venema
wardrobe Farida Bouhbouh
photography Jan Versweyveld
publicity Natasa Cvjetkovic
supported by ammodo
Coproduced by GREC Festival, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen.
Private producer Gert-Jan en Corinne van den Bergh, Hendrik Jan ten Have en Gabriëlla de Rooij, Joost en Marcelle Kuiper.
Supported by Ammodo.
Synopsis
When four young college graduates leave a small university in Massachusetts for New York, only their friendship and ambition keeps them going. Willem is a gentle and attractive aspiring actor. JB with his sharp tongue strives to become a famous painter. Malcolm is a frustrated architect who is in danger of losing himself to a large architectural firm. After graduating from law school, the withdrawn, brilliant and secretive Jude started a career at the Public Prosecution Service. Through the years, their relationships become deeper and darker, coloured by success, addiction and pride. The friends realize more and more that their greatest challenge is Jude himself: a man in his thirties and already an extremely talented and successful lawyer, but also increasingly a broken man whose body and soul were irreparably damaged during his childhood.
Director's Note
Hanya Yanagihara told me that you can read A Little Life like a fairy tale about “a motherless child who has to face horrible challenges and find his own way.” A surprising point of view, considering A Little Life is a never-ending, meandering journey through the horrific consequences of the structural, violent sexual abuse of an underage child.
A Little Life is set in an abstract contemporary time, without any reference to big events like the AIDS epidemic and 9/11. It is completely focused on the emotional life of the characters. A Little Life is not a book, it is an excess, an excess of words, feelings, sexual abuse, automutilations and heroic attempts at love and friendship. A necessary and stiflingly urgent book. It’s a dissection of the social pressure to be happy and successful, of the overvaluation of sexuality in relationships. It’s a wake-up call for us modern people, for our modern world.
It destabilizes your entire moral way of thinking. It digs deep into what makes people beautiful, but also into what makes them monsters, to themselves and others. ‘A fairy tale,’ but in the way they were originally intended: to exorcise our dark powers. And one about our world in which the author doesn’t give us a solution, no release. A book that is so personal and yet so universal at the same time, rare like a perfect diamond.
— Ivo van Hove
Who's Who
About Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
Since the appointment of Ivo van Hove as director in 2001, the ITA ensemble (formerly Toneelgroep Amsterdam) has presented a series of high-profile performances and attracted renowned directors from both home and abroad. In addition to its own location in Amsterdam—Internationaal Theater Amsterdam—the ensemble plays stages all across the world.
Photo credit: Jan Versweyveld
Ivo van Hove
Ivo van Hove is General Director of Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (former Toneelgroep Amsterdam) since 2001. He was artistic director of the Holland Festival from 1998 to 2004. His productions tour all over the world: the Edinburgh Festival, The Barbican, the Ruhrtriennale, Vienna Festival, Seoul, Sydney, Buenos Aires, New York and Festival d’Avignon. Works Van Hove has directed include Angels in America, a staged version of Yanagihara’s A Little Life, Shakespeare’s Roman tragedies and Kings of War, Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, Schiller’s Mary Stuart and Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. Other selected credits include A View from the Bridge at the Young Vic, Network and Hedda Gabler at the National Theatre, Visconti’s Obsession at the Barbican, and productions for Schaubühne Berlin, Paris’s Théâtre de l’Odéon and Comédie-Française and in New York he directed A streetcar named desire and Hedda Gabler at NYTW, A View from the Bridge, The Crucible, Network and the upcoming West Side Story on Broadway. With David Bowie and Enda Walsh he created Lazarus, which he also directed in London and Amsterdam.
Opera credits include The Makropulos Case, Salome for Dutch National Opera, Boris Godunov and the upcoming Don Giovanni for Paris Opéra, world premiere Brokeback Mountain for Teatro Real Madrid, Macbeth for Opéra de Lyon, La clemenza di Tito and Idomeneo for La Monnaie, Brussels, Mazepa for Komische Oper Berlin.
Van Hove has received many international accolades including two Tony Awards, two Obie’s and two Olivier Awards and many awards in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. He is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, received the Flemish Culture Prize for Overall Cultural Merit (2015) and has been made a Commander of the Order of the Crown by King Filip of Belgium. In 2019 he was awarded the Dutch state art prize; the Johannes Vermeer prize.
Photo credit: Dim Balsem
Ramsey Nasr
Ramsey Nasr (1974) is a poet, writer, actor and director. He graduated from the Studio Herman Teirlinck in Antwerp in 1995, and started his careers in acting and writing simultaneously. His first book of poems came out on the same evening he premiered his monologue called Geen Lied.
Not only did he continue writing poetry, he also became a well-known essayist and playwright. His stage text for Death in Venice, a unique co-production by Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra based on the novella by Thomas Mann, in which Ramsey also plays the leading role, premiered in 2019. He has also starred in award-winning television series and films, such as I.M: a series about Dutch journalist Ischa Meijer, for which Ramsey won a Golden Calf for Best Acting in a Television Drama.
Ramsey has been part of the ITA ensemble (formerly Toneelgroep Amsterdam) since 2013. He received the Louis d’Or (the Dutch theater award for the most impressive leading male role) twice: for his role as Jude in A Little Life and for his interpretation of Howard Roark in The Fountainhead.
AWARDS
2020 | Golden Calf | I.M.
2019 | Louis d'Or | A Little Life at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
2015 | Louis d'Or | The Fountainhead at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2015 | nomination Golden Calf | The Adulterer
2014 | nomination Arlecchino | Long Day's Journey into Night at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2013 | De Gouden Ganzenveer
2012 | E. du Perron price
2007 | Honorary doctorate at the University of Antwerp
2006 | Journalist for Peace
2000 | Taalunie Toneelschrijfprijs | Geen lied
2000 | Mary Dresselhuys Price| Geen lied at Het Zuidelijk Toneel
2000 | nomination Louis d'Or | Geen lied at Het Zuidelijk Toneel
1995 | Philip Morris Scholarship Award
Photo credit: Jan Versweyveld
Maarten Heijmans
Maarten Heijmans (1983) graduated from the Amsterdam Drama School and Academy of Performing Arts in 2007. His graduation play, The Crying Cherry, won the Amsterdam Fringe Award. He went on to play in countless theater productions and films and television series alike.
In 2014, he played the title role in Ramses, a television series about the legendary Dutch singer Ramses Shaffy's rise to fame. For this role, he was awarded an International Emmy Award and a Prix de l’Europe, amongst other prestigious Dutch awards such as a Golden Calf, Zilveren Nipkowschijf and a TV-Beelden award. In the following years, he toured The Netherlands with his band performing Ramses Shaffy’s music and recorded an album in 2019.
After he won the Arlecchino in 2017 (a theater award for the most impressive supporting male role) for his part in Ibsen House directed by Simon Stone, Maarten joined the ITA ensemble (formerly Toneelgroep Amsterdam) during season 18|19. Other plays include Flight 49 (for which he was nominated for another Arlecchino), Age of Rage and The Magic Mountain.
AWARDS
2021 | nomination Arlecchino | Flight 49 at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
2017 | Arlecchino | Ibsen huis at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2016 | Zapp Live Theaterprijs | De Gelaarsde Poes
2016 | Praxis Film Festival | Het Mooiste Wat Er Is
2016 | Snowdance Festival | Het Mooiste Wat Er Is
2015 | International Emmy Award | Ramses
2015 | TV-BEELDEN | Ramses
2014 | Golden Calf | Ramses
2014 | Prix de l’Europe | Ramses
2014 | Zilveren Nipkowschijf | Ramses
2008 | Amsterdam Fringe Award | Huilende Kers
2007 | ITs Award | Huilende Kers
Photo credit: Anne Reinke
Majd Mardo
Majd Mardo (1989) graduated from the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2013. Next to his work as an actor at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Majd has appeared in films and television series.
Majd joined the ITA ensemble (formerly Toneelgroep Amsterdam) in the season of 18|19 and played roles in The Things That Pass, Roman Tragedies, The Homecoming, Falling Man, The Cherry Orchard, The Hours and Age of Rage, for which he won the Arlecchino (a theater award for the most impressive supporting male role) in 2022.
AWARDS
2022 | Arlecchino | Age of Rage
2017 | Golden Calf | Jungle
Edwin Jonker
After studying history for two years at the University of Amsterdam, Edwin Jonker (1976) made the switch to acting. He is an actor, singer and voice-over artist with a solid career in musical, theater, film, and television.
In 2001, he received a John Kraaijkamp Musical Award for Best Male Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the role of Tom Collins in Rent and in 2013 he was nominated for the same award for his portrayal of the role of Wet Harry in Sister Act.
In past years in The Netherlands, he also performed in the theater as Curtis in the grand tour of Dreamgirls and as the lead in A Chorus Line. Before that, he performed in the musicals Home (Julius), Copacabana (Ricco), The Lion King (Mufasa), Billie Holiday (Lester Young and others) and Miss Saigon (John). In 2018, he starred in the tours of The Color Purple and Driving Miss Daisy, followed by the role of Oliver Warbucks in the musical Annie in 2019.
AWARDS
2013 | nomination John Kraaijkamp Musical Award for Best Male Supporting Actor | Sister Act
2001 | John Kraaijkamp Musical Award for Best Male Supporting Actor | Rent
Photo credit: Fabian Calis
Hans Kesting
Hans Kesting (1960) grew up in Rotterdam and studied at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts.
In 2015, he received the Van Dalsumring, a prestigious award in the Dutch theater world that is passed on from actor to actor.
Hans has been performing with the ITA ensemble (formerly Toneelgroep Amsterdam) since 1987. His impressive résumé includes award-winning performances in Angels in America (Louis d’Or, the Dutch theater award for the most impressive leading male role), Who Killed My Father (Espetáculo de honra Festival de Almada) and Kings of War (Louis d’Or).
AWARDS
2021 | nomination Louis d'Or | Who killed my father at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
2021 | Espetáculo de honra Festival de Almada | Who killed my father at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
2020 | Knight in the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands
2017 | nomination Amsterdamprijs voor de Kunst
2016 | Louis d'Or | Kings of war at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2015 | Albert van Dalsum Ring
2008 | Louis d'Or | Angels in America at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2008 | nomination Louis d'Or | Roman tragedies at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2005 | nomination Louis d'Or | The Norman Conquests at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
Photo credit: Jan Versweyveld
Marieke Heebink
Marieke Heebink (1962) graduated from the Arnhem Drama School in 1988 and worked with various theater companies throughout the years.
Next to her very solid career in theater, she also worked as an actor in various film and television productions, such as Bij ons in de Jordaan, Mevrouw de Minister, Gouden Bergen, Moordvrouw and Heer & Meester. She won a Golden Calf for her role in 1000 Roses, a Dutch film directed by Theu Boermans in 1994.
Marieke has been part of the ITA ensemble (formerly Toneelgroep Amsterdam) since 1994. She was awarded a Theo d'Or (the Dutch theater award for the most impressive leading female role) for her role of Constance Middleton in The Constant Wife (1999) and for her part of Anna in Medea (2015). Other plays include Oedipus, Persona, Kings of War, Roman Tragedies, Death in Venice and many more.
AWARDS
2018 | nomination Theo d'Or | Oedipus at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2015 | Theo d'Or | Medea at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2013 | nomination Theo d'Or | Persona at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2012 | nomination Colombina | The Russians! at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2012 | nomination Colombina | After the Fall at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
2010 | nomination Colombina | Summer Trilogy at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
1999 | Theo d’Or | Een ideale vrouw at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
1998 | nomination Theo d’Or | Zes personages op zoek at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
1997 | nomination Colombina | Een soort Hades at Toneelgroep Amsterdam
1993 | Goden Calf | 1000 Roses
1990 | nomination Colombina | Platonov at De Trust
Photo credit: Jan Versweyveld
Jacob Derwig
Jacob Derwig (1969) graduated from the Arnhem Drama School. He was a permanent member of ‘t Barre Land and De Trust from 1995 until 1999, where he played the title role in the much-praised Hamlet, for which he received a nomination for the Louis d’Or (the Dutch theater award for the most impressive leading male role). In addition to the theater, he also starred in various television series and films. He was awarded a Golden Calf (best actor) for his role in Zus & Zo (Siblings & Such).
In 2011, he received a Louis d’Or for his role in Children of the Sun. Earlier on, he won the Arlecchino in 2006 (the theater award for the most impressive supporting male role) for his part in Opening Night and a Louis d’Or nomination for his role in To Damascus in 2008.
Jacob was a part of the ITA ensemble (formerly Toneelgroep Amsterdam) from 2005 until 2012. He has performed in Roman Tragedies, La Grande Bouffe, Antonioni Project, Opening Night and Teorema and appeared in Hedda Gabler, Antigone-Kreon-Oedipus and The Russians!.
AWARDS
2022 | nomination Louis d’Or | Grief Is The Thing With Feathers
2018 | Golden Calf | The Resistance Banker
2016 | TV-BEELDEN | Penoza
2014 | Louis d’Or | Wie is er bang voor Virginia Woolf?
2011 | Louis d’Or | Children of the Sun
2008 | nomination Louis d’Or | To Damascus
2006 | Arlecchino | Opening Night
2003 | Golden Calf | Zus & Zo
1998 | nomination Louis d’Or | Hamlet
Photo credit: Jan Versweyveld
Bart Slegers
Bart Slegers (1964) studied at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory (Acting) in Antwerp where he was taught by Dora van de Groen, Lucas Vandervost, Warre Borgmans, Luc Perceval, Ivo van Hove and others. He is mainly active in the theater, but also played many roles in television series and films.
He worked with Het Zuidelijk Toneel for ten years (1990–2000), followed by theater companies such as De Tijd, Het Paleis, Laika, Noord Nederlands Toneel, Theater van het Oosten and Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest. From 2007 to 2012, he was a member of the Rotheater.
Bart joined the ITA ensemble (formerly Toneelgroep Amsterdam) in season 12|13, after which he had roles in countless productions including Kings of War, Roman Tragedies, The Damned, Freud, The Cherry Orchard, The Fountainhead, Ibsen House and many more.
AWARDS
2015 | nomination Golden Calf | Gluckauf