Tobias Menzies (The Crown, Game of Thrones) makes a breathtaking U.S. stage debut in the critically lauded Almeida Theatre production The Hunt (starting February 16, 2024), based on Thomas Vinterberg’s 2012 film Jagten. The Hunt catapults audiences into some of today’s thorniest questions surrounding mob justice. In a performance that has been described as “superb” (Sunday Times), “devastating” (Evening Standard), and “extraordinarily powerful and restrained” (The Stage), Menzies portrays an elementary school teacher accused of misconduct by a child in a rural Danish hunting town. Rupert Goold’s thrilling staging unfolds on Es Devlin’s brilliant set, a literal glass house revolving into anarchy. The Hunt is the second adaptation of a Vinterberg work presented by St. Ann’s Warehouse, following its 2012 U.S. premiere of Grzegorz Jarzyna’s blistering, “viscerally charged” (The New York Times) production of Festen, Vinterberg’s final Dogme 95 film.
Would that Farr and Goold’s work gave us as much to consider as Devlin’s, but beyond the rich evocations of its set, The Hunt is a frustrating affair. It aims for thrillerish tension, but in its attempt to sound the direful minor chords of parable, Farr’s script forces its characters into behavior that feels at best underexamined and at worst absurd. Will they make the worst possible decisions, the most drastic leaps to conclusion, the most violent threats, and the least reasonable assumptions in every situation? You bet they will. Will our beleaguered protagonist fail to defend himself almost every time he gets the opportunity? The man can barely get a sentence out. Will the play indulge in some classically manipulative moves from the Tropes for High-Tension Dramas About Communal Persecution of an Innocent Man playbook? Well, there is a real dog onstage, and yes, it belongs to our hero, and no, you shouldn’t get attached to it.
Director Rupert Goold, the artistic director of London’s Almeida Theater, where David Farr’s adaptation debuted in 2019, has turned the story into an exercise in inventive staging. In an early scene, members of Lucas’ hunting lodge sing raucous drinking songs and perform what feels like a savage ritual (in the film, they just swam naked in the local lake); later, in an apparent nod to the main community activity of deer-hunting, we see Minotaur-like figures. Es Devlin, the Tony-winning scenic designer for “The Lehman Trilogy,” has created another transparent cube for “The Hunt” – a small one in the middle of the stage that serves as the classroom, the local hunting lodge, the local church with the characters crowded inside, as if to emphasize the (claustrophobic?) closeness of the community. Characters magically appear and disappear in the cube – and not just human ones.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Adaptation | David Farr |
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Direction of a Play | Rupert Goold |
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play | Tobias Menzies |
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play | Es Devlin |
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design of a Play | Adam Cork |
2024 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance | Tobias Menzies |
2024 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Direction of a Play | Rupert Goold |
2024 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Play | The Hunt |
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