Hanya Yanagihara's controversial novel hits the West End with a stunning central performance by James Norton
6 / 10
The events don't have time to breathe and hit the audience like they should because the company bestow them at an impetuous speed due to obvious timing reasons. A lot is sensibly omitted - from entire figures to situations that only solidify the small details - but one feels the topics shown are left underanalysed. The script ambles between dialogue, narrative, and inner monologue, swiftly going from one to the next with Shakespearean ambition. It largely works, but comes off as a forced artifice used to slide the story along painlessly. Poetic peaks follow clipped exposition while the actors address the crowd like a narrator would the reader.
