Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010

The Little Foxes

Ivo van Hove, the avant-garde Flemish director known for his quirky takes on classics like Hedda Gabler and A Streetcar Named Desire, both deconstructs and reinvigorates Lillian Hellman's famous play about a grasping Alabama family at the turn of the 20th century. With spare scenery, modern dress, a video screen spying on the offstage action and a few steps of a crucial staircase framed at center stage, the off-Broadway production (at the New York Theater Workshop last winter) eliminated most of the period trappings but lifted the emotions to operatic heights.