A Little Life, based on Hanya Yanagihara’s novel, is set in a New York apartment shared by four mega-successful yuppies: an architect, a fine artist, a film star and a Wall Street attorney, Jude, played by James Norton. A friendly doctor tags along occasionally and an older lawyer, in his sixties, joins the gang after legally adopting Jude.
None of the men has a partner or a family, and they never discuss things like sport, cars, investments, movies or girls. Instead they hug a lot and cook pastries for each other in a kitchenette on stage. The play feels like a joke-free episode of Friends with an all-male cast. And the script might have been written by a teenage girl. The characters say things like, ‘I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you’, ‘Does it bother you that I still hang out with him?’, ‘I forgot to get you a birthday present’ and ‘I love you.’
Sitting through this epic bore is like a trip to A&E
After an hour of spineless chitchat, the play moves into a sad phase.
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