The Line of Beauty – Almeida Theatre
Alan Hollinghurst’s 2004 novel The Line of Beauty takes its title from William Hogarth’s work on the empirical analysis of aesthetics. Its protagonist, Nick Guest, is obsessed with this idea of beauty; he drifts from gorgeous lover to gorgeous lover, coming alive only for sex and conversations about Henry James; he is enticed by the lifestyle of the wealthy, but doesn’t quite belong in their world. The Almeida's adaptation of the novel grapples with Nick’s struggle between his aesthete sensibilities and impossibility of life as a young gay man during Thatcherism and the AIDS crisis.
Michael Grandage’s production captures the ‘80s zeitgeist deliciously. There’s ‘80s pop anthems throughout, booming from the radio onstage and smoothing over scene transitions; and, conversely, there’s the e...