My Brilliant Friend, National Theatre review ★★★★★

Elena Ferrante sparked a publishing sensation – without revealing her true identity. The reclusive Italian writer had readers around the world transfixed by the best-selling series of Neapolitan novels: My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay and The Story of the Lost Child.

Ferrante fever reignites as April de Angelis’s stage adaptation comes to the National Theatre's Olivier stage after a sell-out opening at the Rose Theatre, Kingston in 2017. To squeeze four novels worth of narrative into a play is no mean feat: it’s a big story, sprawling over two parts, which total almost 6 hours. You can watch parts one and two from matinee or evening or stagger the performances across separate evenings. Either way it’s a commitment.

While the 60 year time span of the Neapolitan novels is epic, it’s the intimacy of Ferrante’s prose and the vividly-wrought Naples neighbourhood that are hardest to capture. An HBO TV adaptation of My Brilliant Friend relied on close ups and exquisite lavish shots of Italian streets.


Catherine McCormack, Niamh Cusack in My Brilliant Friend Part 1. Photo by Marc Brenner