VIEWPOINTS – Strange coincidence: The stage adaptations of Édouard Louis’s THE END OF EDDY & HISTORY OF VIOLENCE take up residence in Brooklyn

Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance isn’t the only play in town theatricalizing the gay experience. In a strange coincidence and an unprecedented collaboration between two of Brooklyn’s top performing arts institutions – the Brooklyn Academy of Music and St. Ann’s Warehouse – the stage adaptations of a pair of Édouard Louis’s books are concurrently being presented, making for a compelling doubleheader. These would be The End of Eddy and History of Violence, Mr. Louis’s 2017 and 2018 autobiographical novels documenting his experience, thus far, as a gay youth and man. Whereas The Inheritance seeks to create a panoramic view of contemporary gay life, Mr. Louis (whose ascent in French literary and intellectual circles has been pretty astonishing) seeks to cover the universal in his intensely personal memoirs.

The stage adaptation of "The End of Eddy" at BAM Fisher.

The stage adaptation of “The End of Eddy” at BAM Fisher.

 

The stage adaptation of Mr. Louis’s breakout The End of Eddy (RECOMMENDED) comes to New York for a brief run as part BAM’s Next Wave Festival courtesy of the Unicorn Theatre, one of London’s premiere creators of theater for younger audiences. The work depicts Mr. Louis’s tough experience growing up a repressed gay youth (for which he was relentlessly bullied) in Hallencourt, a poverty-stricken, working class community in northern France. Given its inherently sexual subject matter, the piece strikes me as controversial but courageous programming for a theater for young audiences. It’s an important story that’s been tastefully filtered – never flinching away from the story’s fundamentals, but framing Mr. Louis’s story in a way that provides just enough sociological exposition for easier consumption – for the demographic of the Unicorn’s audiences, thanks to Pamela Carter’s smart adaptation and Stewart Laing’s clean, inventive direction (which features clever use of pre-recorded video work). The production features just two actors (the charismatic duo of Alex Austin and Kwaku Mills, both excellent) in the role of Eddy, as well as an array of characters from Mr. Louis’s childhood.

The stage adaptation of "History of Violence" at St. Ann's Warehouse.

The stage adaptation of “History of Violence” at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Then, just a subway stop away at St. Ann’s Warehouse, we have Schaubühne Berlin’s stage adaptation of History of Violence (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), directed by brilliant auteur Thomas Ostermeier. Having escaped the savagery of his childhood, the work finds our protagonist, now known as Édouard, as a student in Paris. But he’s not in the clear. Far from it – History of Violence recounts his horrific experience of being raped and killed on Christmas Eve 2012 during a one-night stand. Suffice to say, History of Violence is a show strictly for adults, not shying away from nudity and frank depictions of sex and violence. Mr. Ostermerier has wowed me in the past (his Richard III is the most thrilling staging of the play I’ve seen, even in German!), and he doesn’t disappoint here, giving us a production that’s as clear-eyed and objectively investigative as Mr. Louis’s own analysis of his experience. Mr. Ostermeier and his fearless band of German actors deal with the writer’s fractured storytelling with cool confidence and menacing austerity (the mood is enhanced by live percussive accompaniment), which makes the violence at the core of the work that much more shocking. That the play ends on a note of ambivalence only contributes to the disturbing and unsettling quality of the whole thing.

 

THE END OF EDDY
Off-Broadway, Play
Unicorn Theatre / Next Wave Festival / BAM Fisher
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed

HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
Off-Broadway, Play
Schaubühne Berlin / St. Ann’s Warehouse
2 hours (without an intermission)
Through December 1

 

 

 

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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