Looking for the ultimate show to book for next year? Read on to find out more about the ‘A Little Life’ theatre production starring James Norton…

2023 already looks like it’s shaping up to be a great year for all things theatre, with a wealth of exciting shows set to debut in the West End next year– and there’s another one on our radar that we’re excited for. Happy Valley and McMafia star James Norton is set to star in a new play that adapts the Hanya Yanagihara novel A Little Life, which debuted in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It’ll be running at The Harold Pinter theatre, with performances beginning on the 25th March.

A Little Life certainly has plenty of substance to adapt- the novel is over 800 pages long, and deals with several difficult topics. It’s focus is on a group of four classmates living in America, who leave college and head to New York to build their careers and find a new life. Despite successful jobs and relationships, the four begin to run into problems and struggles that threaten to tear the friendships apart.

Norton plays Jude, who has already found himself a successful job as a lawyer in the city. But despite this success, he’s troubled by lingering trauma from his childhood and adolescence, having suffered abuse from several figures in his life growing up. Luke Thompson, who appeared in Bridgerton, plays Willem, an actor developing a profile as a movie star. It’s A Sin’s Omari Douglas features as JB, an artist struggling with drug addiction and has alienated his friends, and Zacc Wyatt, who’s appeared in The Witcher, is playing Malcom, a married architect.

The book received wide spread critical acclaim and good sales, despite its heavy material and difficult themes of addiction, abuse, race and sexuality. The dramatic and devastating plot makes for a moving stage play- a version has already played in Dutch, again receiving good reviews with praise for how it adapts the novel’s emotional content. The play is set to be 3 hours and 40 minutes- so certainly worthy of the book’s page count. The move has found a few famous fans, including Dua Lipa, who told Hanya Yanagihara on her podcast that the book “changed her life.” The run at the Pinter is currently set to last from 25th March until 18th June next year, and tickets are available now.





A Little Life opens at The Harold Pinter Theatre on 25th March 2023










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