A Little Life (West End) London Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (144)
See it if You like LGBTQ+ thematics and intense, dramatic plays. Beautifully acted. Was turning in my seat the whole time.
Don't see it if You’re easily impressed and don’t care for the plays that exploit pain. Topics like suicide and self-harm trigger you.
See it if You like a brilliant performance brilliantly acted. I was left emotionally drained it was a difficult watch.
Don't see it if You are triggered by mental health and self harm and don’t want to cry in the theatre
See it if James Norton has secured his Olivier for this season in what’s possibly the best show I’ve ever seen.
Don't see it if It’s very long, and the amount of trigger warnings won’t fit here, so be prepared going in, it’s a lot.
See it if You're a fan of the book. Also if you want to see a masterclass in great acting and directing of a very intense and heartbreaking story.
Don't see it if Harrowing shows with lots of trigger warnings and intense scenes make you uncomfortable. Read more
See it if you want to see great acting and staging.
Don't see it if you don’t like intense shows with lots of blood, self harm, violence and abuse
See it if read the book and know the history and/or if you want something very deep and heartbreaking
Don't see it if you can’t sit for almost 4 hours and is sensible to blood, rape, self harming, etc. check trigging warnings!
See it if you want to see a well done show but emotionally taxing and difficult to view at points.
Don't see it if You cannot sit for long shows-this is almost 4 hours or if you are sensitive to blood, mental disorders, suicide, self harm, violence, abuse Read more
See it if you're a fan of James Norton. He is amazing in this. He rarely leaves the stage for this 3+ hour show.
Don't see it if if the sight of blood makes you nauseous. There's a lot of cutting and constant cleaning of blood on stage.
Critic Reviews (13)
"The play it's certain to divide both audiences and critics: its effect ultimately depends on what one looks for. It's only a shadow of the book, but, realistically, this is probably the best adaptation fans and sceptics will get.”
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“I still can’t decide if ‘A Little Life’ is a work of great empathy, great voyeurism or some conflation of the two. But it’s been staged here with consummate skill and Norton’s astonishing performance puts him into the top rank.”
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“I can’t help but think ‘A Little Life’ is probably essentially meaningless, a horrible story told for the thrill of telling a horrible story, its nihilism ultimately sophomoric and unserious. Brilliant acting, great direction, but at heart it’s simply an empty vision of despair.”
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“There is something heroic in the staging of this story in the West End: resolutely bleak with no catharsis and cyclical violence, it is an almost anthropological study of pain.”
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“...here’s my content warning: the exposition-heavy script is as overstated as the accompanying string music – a little less of it, in fact a lot less of it, would help.”
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“The play, inevitably can only deliver a precis of a book that sprawls over some 700 pages...A stylishly mounted, second-rate melodrama.”
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“I felt I had witnessed a terrible, truthful depiction of the ongoing effects of mankind’s capacity for cruelty. I still wondered why I would want to delve so deep, but there is no doubting the production’s power – or the belief and excellence of all the actors.”
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“Just witnessing it tests our endurance too; Norton’s is, though, an astonishing performance in a production that leaves its mark like a livid, tender bruise on the imagination.”
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