Prize winning novel is filleted
Almeida Theatre
Alan Hollinghurst‘s novel won the Booker Prize and now Jack Holden has adapted it for the stage. Let’s turn to The Stage for a plot summary: ‘it charts an agile odyssey from 1983 to 1987 through sex and love, financial and political chicanery, class division and the AIDS crisis.’ The critics liked Michael Grandage‘s restrained direction and Holden’s fidelity to the story, but on the whole they were not engaged by the production.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
Four stars ★★★★
Alex Wood at WhatsOnStage said: ‘Rather than reimagining Hollinghurst’s novel, Holden translates it for the stage with precision, capturing its wit, sensuality and quiet melancholy. The result feels less like a radical reinterpretation and more like a refined condensation: a world of dinner parties, desire, denial and drug-sniffing brought vividly to life within Grandage’s clear, uncluttered production, with design by Christopher Oram.’
For such a positive rating, The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish is surprisingly restrained: ‘(Jack Holden’s) adaptation is straightforwardly episodic, its instinct faithful but restrained. Without the interiority the novel brings and the wider context he could add, he’s scratching the surface, both of the characters and the era.’ He concluded: ‘Assisted by nostalgia-stirring pop sounds, here’s another bittersweet evocation of a momentous decade that cast a long shadow. It’s just a shame there’s not a bit more dramatic meat to chew on.’
Alice Saville of The Independent commented: ‘Grandage’s deliciously witty production is so good at delineating the subtle class tensions of this world: the gaffes, the blunders, the ways in which outsiders are tolerated – provided they know their place.’ She cautioned: ‘Holden’s take here is subtly moralistic, giving Nick a clear choice between humble true love and the false blandishments of wealth. What it’s missing, perhaps, is time and space to explore his agony as he’s crushed by the wagon he hitched himself to. But it’s still a wild, witty ride, powered by slow-burning anger at a political elite that’s updated its shoulderpads – but not its values.’
The Standard‘s Nick Curtis declared: ‘this is a hugely entertaining skim across the shiny surface of 80s Britain, and a return to form for Grandage (…) (Jasper) Talbot, (Charles) Edwards, (Claudia) Harrison and (Francesca) Amedwudah-Rivers stand out from a fine ensemble.’
Three stars ★★★
The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar called it ‘a warning for our age of rising intolerance, and an adaptation well worth seeing’. She picked out certain aspects: ‘Michael Grandage brings fantastic directorial polish and pace and the cast are excellent, from Alistair Nwachukwu as Nick’s wryly funny, working-class boyfriend Leo, to Arty Froushan as the uber-rich Wani, who is engaged to a woman but in a secret relationship with Nick.’ She had reservations: ‘what a lot of story, and feelings, to fit in’ which meant ‘we do not really enter into these relationships fully.’
The Stage‘s Sam Marlowe wasn’t fully on board: ‘The smooth-running intricacy of the piece and its dislikeable denizens mean we experience it at arm’s length. But it’s unarguably adroit and accomplished.’
Andrzej Lukowksi’s review in TimeOut seems more enthusiastic than some of the four star ones: ‘it does a tremendous job of cutting Hollinghurst’s period odyssey into a gripping, flab-free two-and-a-half hours of theatre. It is, above all, a great piece of storytelling.’ He expects it to transfer to the West End where ‘it would stand as a smart, sympathetic take on a somewhat daring choice of novel for commercial theatre. At the edgier Almeida it feels exquisite, but MOR.’
Two stars ★★
The Times’ Clive Davis was unimpressed: ‘It’s not just the music that goes thud, thud, thud (…) Jack Holden’s adaptation, stripped of the languorous, Henry James-ish embellishments, turns into a lumbering string of scenes from a high-society soap’ and ‘the production is alternately gauche and garish’ and ‘it’s undercut by some oddly uneven performances’ and ‘The dialogue … is closer to the drawing room clichés of a rainy Sunday afternoon at Downton Abbey.’
Critics’ average rating 3.4★
The Line of Beauty can be seen at the Almeida Theatre until 29 November 2025. Buy tickets direct from the theatre
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