From November 28 through December 2, “The Fountainhead” with Toneelgroep Amsterdam by Ivo van Hove will run at BAM
From November 28 through December 2, “The Fountainhead” by director Ivo van Hove will run as part of the 2017 Next Wave Festival at BAM, New York. The production “The Fountainhead” is based on the book by Ayn Rand and staged by Toneelgroep Amsterdam.
Get your tickets here!
Its controversy precedes it: Ayn Rand’s notorious 700-page paean to radical individualism, wrapped in a saga of sex, architecture, and skybound ambition. In this brutal reexamination, Belgian director Ivo van Hove updates the action to a buzzing co-working loft, where egos collide over mobile drafting tables and stiff drinks. Blueprints come and go, as idealist New York architect Howard Roark—determined not to conform to public taste—vies with pandering colleagues while navigating the desires of the elusive Dominique Francon. As overhead cameras voyeuristically capture creative and carnal acts from above, Van Hove unravels a bête noire of the left, letting the audience decide where to cast its stones.
Read the wonderful review of “The Fountainhead” by The New York Times here!
Belgian-born Ivo van Hove has been the director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam since 2001. He is known for taking classics and reinventing them for today’s world. For Van Hove, this means figuring out what will be most meaningful for the audience. His version of “A View From the Bridge” strips the play of its 1950s details in order to give the story a timeless quality. The stage is nearly empty. Characters go barefoot and wear neutral, modern clothing. Van Hove uses modern music and dramatic lighting to create the mood of the play and to reveal the emotions at the center of the story. “Ivo van Hove’s work has been groundbreaking in opening up audiences’ understanding of classic texts and films. His work is unique, raw, shocking, surprising, hilarious – everything you want theater to be – and he doesn’t shy away from the ugly or the profane. In a word, stunning, with a capital ‘S’.” – Cate Blanchett
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