Review Roundup: Jude Law Returns to the Stage in OBSESSION

Jude Law returned to the stage last night in the world premiere of OBSESSION, a stage adaptation of Luchino Visconti's 1943 film. It's part of Ivo Van Hove's Toneelgroep Amsterdam Barbican residency, which also includes the return of their ROMAN TRAGEDIES and a double bill based on Ingmar Bergman films. All four plays will be directed by van Hove.

In penetrating social drama OBSESSION (now through May 20), Jude Law plays the magnetically handsome, down-at-heel Gino, who plots the murder of his lover's husband. Visconti's film was based on James M Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. The production brings together members of the Toneelgroep Amsterdam ensemble and British actors. Following the Barbican run, it will tour to Vienna, Amsterdam and Luxembourg.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Photo Credit: Jan Versweyveld

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Marianka Swain, BroadwayWorld: "Everybody wants passion," says Ivo Van Hove in the programme interview for his latest show, but in both tone and aesthetic, his take on this doomed romance is less red-hot fire of ardour, more the cold, grey ash left in the wake of a consuming flame. It's intermittently beautiful and thoughtful, but lacks the necessary fervour that binds lover to lover, and audience to material.

Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage: On Jan Versweyveld's characteristically vast and empty set, bisected by a step, with windows at the rear and a plain kitchen bar to one side, van Hove conjures the most magical opening as Law's Gino wanders into view, playing the mouth organ, a vision of untrammelled liberty. As he steps forward, barracked by the foul-mouthed Joseph (a performance of compelling unpleasantness from the brilliant Gijs Scholten van Aschat), he is instantly captivated by Halina Reijn's disaffected Hanna.

Michael Billington, The Guardian: Jude Law is the big draw in this stage version of Luchino Visconti's 1942 movie and he is beautifully matched by his partner-in-crime, Halina Reijn. The whole thing is very classy, but the production has the stylish aestheticism we have come to expect from the director, Ivo Van Hove, and that doesn't entirely suit the subject. At the end it descends into sentimentality.

Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard: Luchino Visconti's 1943 film Ossessione is a landmark, a passionate vision of desire and its destructiveness. Cultish director Ivo Van Hove has three times previously brought Visconti's work to the stage, and with Jude Law in the lead his latest encounter with the enigmatic Italian promises much.

But the results are disappointing. The production is underpowered and rarely feels exciting. Followers of van Hove's career will note many similarities to his recent take on Hedda Gabler at the National Theatre - there's a sense here of ideas and gestures being recycled.

Natasha Tripney, The Stage: It feels a little bit like Van Hove is running low on ideas. There are moments here reminiscent of the most problematic bits of his recent Hedda Gabler with none of that production's ability to grip. Reijn does this strange litter dance where she flings rubbish about the stage, crawls on her hands and knees a lot, and - sigh - ends up stripped to her knickers for a scene where she and Gino take a bath together.

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: He has played Faustus, Hamlet, Henry V. But whether on stage or screen, Jude Law has always taken pains not to be a straight-down-the-line leading-man. And he's strenuously reminding fans of that fact at the moment by flexing his muscles in a spot of avant-garde theatre, courtesy of Belgian director Ivo Van Hove.

Anyone who's anyone needs a bit of Van Hove on their CV these days. So what if the production turns out to be a dud. The trick to being Europe's most feted director, you see, is to be interesting even on an off-day - and in fact confuse everyone as to what an off-day even constitutes.

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