I've loved a lot of Ivo van Hove's work but I'm far from finding him faultless -
some of his screen-to-stage adaptations have been positively soporific, and
the David Bowie musical is just a baffled question mark in my memory - so while I hope for the best, I don't assume every one of his shows will knock it out of the park. And while his reunion with
Ruth Wilson for a Jean Cocteau monologue had a lot of anticipation behind it, sadly it goes very much into the
other column of the director's work. In
The Human Voice, Wilson plays a woman on the phone to her ex-boyfriend soon after their breakup; he's moved out of her apartment, but she still has a few of his things (including his dog) to send to him. He's also promised her one last conversation - although she found out he was having an affair and anticipated that he would leave her a few weeks before it happened, she's still not adjusted at all to the idea of being without him.
