Closets Foreign and Familiar

The stage adaptation of Giovanni’s Room by Eline Arbo, the artistic director of the International Theater of Amsterdam, elides some of the nuances of how the novel presents the paradoxes of first-person narration from a protagonist deeply in denial about his homosexuality: how David wants Giovanni, wants men generally, but can’t bear to indulge in or account for these proclivities. Yet the production is nevertheless able, by virtue of its physicality as a medium, to show and enact some of the subtleties of the story by, for example, lighting and music and other dramaturgical stagecraft. Since this is an adaptation by another reader of James Baldwin’s novel who clearly also loves it, it was with curiosity and interest that I attended the production on January 23, 2025. The occasion of my visit was to join a public panel to discuss “ Giovanni’s Room : Spaces, Places and Identities,” organized by Jaap Kooijman, Professor in Media Studies and the director of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), and Nawal Mustafa, Professor of Black Studies and Critical Race Studies, both of the University of Amsterdam. The panel was additionally sponsored by NICA, Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis, and took place before the evening’s performance.