Obsession(NT Live 2017-18)

Jude Law (The Young Pope, The Talented Mr Ripley) stars in a new stage adaptation of Luchino Visconti’s 1943 film, Obsession, directed by the sought-after visionary Ivo van Hove (NT Live: A View from the Bridge).

Gino is a drifter, down-at-heel and magnetically handsome. At a road side restaurant he encounters husband and wife, Giuseppe and Giovanna. Irresistibly attracted to each other, Gino and Giovanna begin a fiery affair and plot to murder her husband. But, in this chilling tale of passion and destruction, the crime only serves to tear them apart.

Visconti’s seminal film gave rise to Italian neorealism, a cinematic movement highlighting the struggles of ordinary people in a time of upheaval. This is Van Hove’s fourth Visconti adaptation and features a company of Dutch and British actors led by Law, whose charismatic stage and screen performances have established him as one of the foremost actors of his generation.


The stage production of Obsession is produced by Barbican Theatre Productions Limited, London and Toneelgroep Amsterdam; co-commissioned by Wiener Festwochen and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; co-produced by Holland Festival and David Binder Productions; and supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.