The stage adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s 2015 novel A Little Life is well into its London run and has proved to be one of the most polarising theatre events of the year.
Reviewers have said the performance is “distressing”, “harrowing” “torture porn”. However, they have also said that the central performances are “a theatrical miracle” and “brilliant”. Such extreme contrasts, in my opinion, seem only to be expected for a novel that also garnered similar divided opinions.
Reviewers criticised its representation of trauma, its realism and its treatment of its gay characters. One particularly, scathing review by the critic Andrea Long Chu criticised what she saw as Yanagihara’s proclivity to “torture” her gay male characters.
