A theatrical adaptation of Édouard Louis’ memoir, Who Killed My Father, is coming to the U.S. this spring.
The adaptation, written and performed by Louis, is directed by Thomas Ostermeier, and produced by Schaubühne Berlin and Théâtre de la Ville Paris.
Louis’ book, published in the U.S. in 2019 and translated by Lorin Stein, chronicles his difficult relationship and eventual reconciliation with his homophobic father, who was severely injured at a factory job. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Whatever one’s politics, readers of this impassioned work are likely to be moved by the Louis family’s plight and the love, however strained, between the author and his father.”
Louis performed an unfinished version of the show in Paris in 2020. “Perhaps it was the unvarnished magic of a workshop performance, but it would have taken a heart of stone not to indulge Louis, and repay his vulnerability with open arms,” wrote theater critic Laura Cappelle for the New York Times.
The U.S. production will be mounted at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn.
“This is our most recent encounter with Édouard Louis, whose profound empathy for the working poor has broken our hearts time and again,” said the theater’s artistic director, Susan Feldman. “In Who Killed My Father, he literally brings his politics home, with rage and love for his infirm father, broken by a system that shows no mercy.”
Who Killed My Father opens on May 18 and runs through June 5.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
