The End Of Eddy
Church Hill Theatre, Edinburgh

EDOUARD LOUIS’s novel is about growing up gay in a working-class community in northern France, but you wouldn’t guess the literary roots of Eline Arbo’s adaptation, so perfectly does it work as a piece of theatre.

It has the epic quality of Brecht — an archetypal story that might happen anywhere, whose scenes play out with didactic clarity, coupled to an uninhibited depiction of teenage sexuality worthy of Frank Wedekind.

It is also a masterpiece of spare contemporary theatre that requires its four Dutch actors to share the main role, as Eddy discovers not just his sexuality but also his dawning class consciousness and to bring every other role to life as believeable portraits from the harassed and cynical mother and broken alcoholic father to homophobic gangs, gay teenage orgies, brothers, girlfriends and schoolmates.