Ivo van Hove: From Shakespeare to David Bowie ed. by Susan Bennett and Sonia Massai, and: Ivo van Hove Onstage ed. by David Willinger, and: Ivo van Hove: Theater van de Lage Landen tot Broadway by Emile Schra, and: Ivo van Hove: Regisseur, Mentor, Manager by Karin Veraart (review)

On 28 October 2018, Ivo van Hove, one of the world's most renowned and innovative directors, turned sixty. Perhaps this was one of the causes for the publication of four books on van Hove in 2018, two of which were the first published entirely in English. For a director of van Hove's stature, with over a hundred productions to his name spanning theater, opera, movies, and musicals, including nine Shakespeare productions, the most surprising thing might be that it took so long. This review will focus on the English-language books and will consider how the two Dutch books complement them.

In Ivo van Hove: From Shakespeare to David Bowie—a well-illustrated volume including sixteen color plates—Susan Bennett and Sonia Massai present a wide variety of approaches to van Hove's works from an international field of scholars, actors, and producers. The first section, "Directing the Classics," focuses on van Hove's productions of ancient, early modern, and modern European classics. Section 2 (at fourteen pages the shortest of the five sections) explores his festival productions, while sections 3 and 4 analyze his work in American theater and in opera across Europe. The final section revolves around other genres in which van Hove has worked, including movies and adaptations of novels for the theater. Since there are close to forty separate contributions spread over five sections and some two hundred pages, they are of necessity relatively short. The aim of the book, as the editors say in the introduction, is to provide "a starting point and sourcebook for others' studies" and "a generative context for van Hove's prolific output" (3).

Of particular interest to the readers of Shakespeare Quarterly will be the first section, on European classics. Focusing on three critical elements in van Hove's approach—design and use of performance space (by Jan Versweyveld, van Hove's artistic and life partner), a multiplicity of characters, and careful analysis of the text—the contributors explore some of van Hove's Shakespeare productions. Among the contributions here, the editors have included five extracts from van Hove's director's notes, two of which concern Shakespeare productions: The Taming of the Shrew and Roman Tragedies. Appearing for the first time in print, these provide a unique window into van Hove's thoughts on these plays in the early stages of work toward a production. Also illuminating are transcriptions of two conversations between two award-winning actresses who played in van Hove productions: Dutch actress Halina Reijn and British actress Ruth Wilson, who discuss their experiences in rehearsals and in playing female roles in his productions. Comparing van Hove's director's notes on The Taming of the Shrew with Reijn's assessment of her role as Katherine demonstrates a close alignment between van Hove's initial thoughts and the way the actress experienced her performance. Another noteworthy contribution, by Laurens De Vos, focuses on Roman Tragedies and Kings of War; of specific interest here is the way De Vos aims at highlighting how the Dutch political and social context might have influenced the productions by van Hove—a topic that remains relatively unexplored in discussions of the director's work.

Like Bennett and Massai, David Willinger also provides fascinating insights into the breadth, diversity, evolution, and significance of van Hove's work, but...