The Hours
Michael Cunningham / Eline Arbo
Three women at different points in the 20th century struggle to be themselves in a world that’s holding them back. Profound social and existential themes come together under the guidance of the new director of the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam.
A full day in the life of Virginia Woolf, specifically the day she started writing the novel Mrs Dalloway, is at the heart of the plot of The Hours, which in turn is a novel written by American author Michael Cunningham in 1998, winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the following year and inspiring a well-known film. Alongside the author, the stories of two other female characters also unfold over the course of a single day. Though they’re living at different points in the 20th century, both these women are linked to Clarissa Dalloway, the protagonist of the story Woolf has started to write. As the director puts it: “By portraying women from completely different times, questions arise about the level of emancipation today and the role patterns that lie deeply hidden in our culture.” The Hours is also the intimate story of women yearning for freedom and facing the potential consequences of these desires on the lives of those around them.
You’ll meet all three women in this stage adaptation by a company that’s no stranger to the Grec Festival: the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam Ensemble. Company director Eline Arbo was born in Tromsø, Norway, above the Arctic Circle, nearly forty years ago. She trained in Oslo, but found her place on the European scene, specifically in the Netherlands, and her latest shows have earned her rave reviews from audiences in Amsterdam and London. Indeed, The Years (2022), an adaptation of the work by Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, was a hit in London last year. However, Arbo’s first piece with the company she now directs was this play that she is now bringing to the 2025 Grec Festival, in her Barcelona debut.
Produced by the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA)
Recommended for audiences age 16 and up.
Discipline
- Theater
Dates and times
Saturday 05/07 - 19:00 h
Sunday 06/07 - 18:00 h
Durada
Language
- Espectacle en neerlandès amb sobretitulació en català
Prices
Other criteria
- International
- Essentials
Recommended age
Artistic sheet
Author: Michael Cunningham · Director: Eline Arbo · Translated by: Servaas Goddijn · Adaptation: Eline Arbo, Peter van Kraaij, Bart Van den Eynde · Performers: Marieke Heebink, Chris Nietvelt, Ilke Paddenburg, Jesse Mensah, Hanna van Vliet, Steven Van Watermeulen · Dramaturgy: Bart Van den Eynde · Set design: Pascal Leboucq · Costumes: Wojciech Dziedzic · Lighting: Varja Klosse · Soundscape: Thijs van Vuure
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