Ivo Van Hove Directs Hans Kesting In WHO KILLED MY FATHER at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam

Who Killed My Father by Edouard Louis is an anger-driven declaration of love to his father. At the same time, it is an indictment of the political elite who neglected and abandoned labourers such as Louis' father. Van Hove has translated the novel and adapted it as a monologue for Hans Kesting.

Who Killed My Father will premiere on 1 April 2020 in deSingel Antwerp, going on tour to Amsterdam thereafter. The Dutch premiere of this piece will be at the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam on Thursday 7 May.

Ivo van Hove: "It is a gripping story about a father who is reduced to a physical and mental wreck at the age of fifty after years of hard work in heavy industry in the north of France. It is just as much a furious indictment of the political elite as a declaration of love by a son to his father. Edouard Louis also writes about how he, as a young homosexual, was ostracized by his own working-class family. I am making a monologue for Hans Kesting from this brazen, brilliant text."

In France, the author Edouard Louis (1992) has been acclaimed as the greatest literary sensation since Michel Houellebecq. In his autobiographical literary debut The End of Eddy (En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule), he looked back on his tormented youth as a young gay man in the forgotten underclass of society: the north of France, which was ravaged by unemployment. Then came History of Violence (Histoire de la violence) where he tells about the night he was raped by the Algerian Reda, but he then refuses to press charges. It is a novel that explores the causes and effects of violence in an intimate, personal, and politically motivated manner. In his work, Louis invites discussion about subjects such as class differences, racism, and homophobia. The author does not shy away from political statements: He stood firmly with the yellow vests movement and he took the fight directly to French President Macron: "My book rebels against who you are and what you do."