Fans who have paid to watch Happy Valley star James Norton in a West End play have been walking out of the near four-hour show about rape, torture and child abuse.
Norton performs distressing scenes in A Little Life while lying naked on the stage – and ends up covered in blood after graphic depictions of self-harm.
After the show opened for previews last month, one audience member counted 11 people walking out.
The theatre warns audiences to expect “strong language, nudity, sexual violence, physical and emotional abuse, self-harm and suicide” in the play, which lasts three hours and 40 minutes.
Theatre-goers are even given details of mental health charities for those disturbed by the content.
And Norton, 37, has revealed therapists have been enlisted to help him cope with the horrific material.
The production is based on the 2015 Booker Prize-shortlisted novel of the same name by US author Hanya Yanagihara, which tells the story of four friends and tackles dark subject matter.
But some critics suggest the stage adaptation is gratuitously grim.
Katherine Cowles of the New Statesman called it “absurdly, tediously, pointlessly bleak” and said she emerged into London’s Soho after the show looking at happy tourists and thinking: “They don’t know what horrors I’ve seen.”
The Guardian’s Sian Cain said it was “four hours of brutality and misery” and added: “Crisis helplines are listed on placards. Two paramedics sit just outside the theatre doors. They’re ready. Some of the audience are not.”
Several reviews noted audience members leaving during the show – although some gave it five stars and said it was “compelling”.
And all of them applauded Norton’s performance.
Speaking about the play to Radio 4 last month, the actor said: “I feel very looked after.
“We have therapists and they’ve gone through amazing safeguards to make sure we’re looked after, as there are no punches pulled. We have to go to places that are quite disturbing but I do feel supported and able to do it.” He previously said: “It’s probably one of the most terrifying things I’ve done.
“I’ve woken up and had moments like, ‘What am I doing voluntarily going into this place, this darkness?’ But it being this scary and terrifying prospect is the reason why you have to do it.”
However, Norton believes the story is really about “heroic acts of friendship”.
And speaking about his on-stage nudity, he has said the play would suffer if it was not depicted wholly.
He added: “I lie on the floor naked being kicked and spat on, and it doesn’t get much more degrading than that. It’s really embarrassing and horrible.”
The show has sold out for most of its three-month run at the Harold Pinter Theatre, ending in June. It moves to the Savoy Theatre in July for five weeks.
