Fellow critic I've written a lot about Van Hove's style of directing for this site, which usually incorporates daring flashes of expressionism on an uncluttered stage. On this occasion the stage is so huge the emptiness makes it look like an abandoned air craft hanger or car show room, requiring the actors to deliver intimate dialogue to each other across wide expanses of open stage. You'll need to decide for yourself whether this eloquently expresses the character's isolation or drains the play of its passion. I couldn't make up my mind but I can tell you I was engaged throughout the interval-less 1.45 hours, even if it could benefit from being 15 minutes shorter.
The simple, predictable plot, oozes illicit sex. A handsome drifter seduces the wife of an overbearing older husband and they murder him in order to be together. I won't tell you how things end up but you can imagine how unlikely it is that they'll enjoy a contented future after such a beginning to their relationship.
The whole production is bathed in a glorious golden light (everything is designed by Jan Versweyveld) that represents both the oppression and intoxication of heat. It perfectly floods both the vastness of the empty set and deliciously illuminates movie star, Jude Law's perfect, naked torso. I comment on his physique not from salacious perversity but because there's little else of beauty to look at in the stark staging, and we're treated to the sight of it a lot. Law of course takes the role of the sexy, bad-boy interloper Gino and playing opposite him are core members of Van Hove's Amsterdam based acting company.
Halina Reijn is Hanna the straying wife who has to work a little too hard to distract us from her lover and rarely succeeds. Gijs Scholten Van Aschat, as her husband, captures the character's ill temper and simmering undercurrent of violence whilst also allowing us to notice how much he craves affection and approval from those he oppresses.
All credit to these three leading players who have the charisma to draw our attention amidst the cavernous wasteland of the set. Chukwundi Iwuji in a couple of supporting roles, Robert De Hoog as an enigmatic gay traveller and Ayesha Kala as competition for Hanna, fare less well and struggle to make an impression.
Stylish visual flourishes from Van Hove include, strewing rubbish across the empty floor, actors entering through the audience, beautiful projections behind the action and dousing murder victims in liquid, in this case oil from a broken engine suspended above the actors; all tricks we've seen before in his frequent, critically acclaimed, recent production.
On this occasion the press have been less enthusiastic and the maverick director does stray worryingly close to parodying his own style here.
Nevertheless the onstage action does exude a sexual heat even if it's one that left me hot but not particularly bothered.
Watching Trevor Nunn's funny and fleet-of-foot production of Love in Idleness, a "new" play forged by combining two drafts of an old play written by Terrence Rattigan that's been barely performed, is like a blast from the past.