OBSESSION

About the show

This special international coproduction with the Barbican Centre premiered in April 2017 in London with a cast consisting of both English actors and TA actors. It will be performed entirely in English. The role of Gino will be played by Jude Law, who has proved to be one of the most important actors of his generation with various exceptional roles in both theatre and film. Gino, an attractive vagabond, stops at a small roadside restaurant and gas station. It is operated by Hanna and Joseph. Hanna is stuck in an unhappy and loveless marriage to an older man in order to escape a life of poverty. A passionate affair occurs between her and the vagabond. Together, they devise the plan to kill her husband. Visconti tells the chilling story though a number of short and bold scenes that are exceptionally poetic and raw. Is freedom in poverty to be preferred over being restrained but wealthy? It makes Obsession a powerful social drama about what passion inflicts on people. How it irresistibly draws them towards each other and eventually leads to a fatal ending. Obsession is Van Hove’s fourth project based on Visconti. He also directed Rocco and his brothers (Toneelgroep Amsterdam and Ruhrtriënnale) and Ludwig II (Münchner Kammerspiele). In July 2016, he created Les Damnés with the Comédie Française during the Festival d’Avignon at the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais des Papes.