my brilliant friend parts 1 & 2

national theatre | olivier

adapted from the novels by Elena Ferrante by April de Angelis

director: Melly Still

sound design: Jon Nicholls

Elena Ferrante’s extraordinary quartet of novels are a compelling, complex picture of female friendship and an epic saga spanning forty years of twentieth-century Italian history. April de Angelis’ adaption distilled them into two 3-hour plays with stunning central performances by Niamh Cusack and Catherine McCormack. Jon’s sound design took audiences on a rollercoaster ride blending four decades of popular music with abstract expressionistic soundscapes and finely-textured environments recorded on location in Naples.