With its interlacing of autobiography and collective memory and a time-frame that spans from 1941 to 2006 and shifts from rural France to Paris, Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux’s defining work about one woman’s life is not an obvious choice for the stage.

This production, impressively adapted and directed by International Theater Amsterdam’s Eline Arbo balances the micro and macro elements of one life through staging that is disarmingly frank, witty and deeply affecting.

The set is kept bare apart from the occasional use of a dining table, some chairs and a trolley carrying domestic bric-a-brac.

White sheets feature throughout, standing in for photo backdrops as tableaux images mark key moments in the woman, ‘Annie’s,’ life or are covered with graffiti slurs following a misjudged fling at a summer camp, then political slogans during her years as a student activist.

Annie Ernaux's personal and political story is told through five different actors including Romola Garai, Gina McKee and Deborah FindlayAnnie Ernaux's personal and political story is told through five different actors including Romola Garai, Gina McKee and Deborah Findlay (Image: Ali Wright)

Throughout the production’s taut 115 minutes, the ensemble that includes luminaries Gina Mckee, Deborah Findlay and Romola Garai, alongside Anjli Mohindra and Harmony Rose-Bremner [both also exceptional] remain on stage and swap in and out of her narratorial voice, presenting ‘Annie’ first as ‘I’ and then ‘we’ as the universality of her experiences gathers resonance.

Following the brutal depiction of a back-street abortion, the ensemble protectively cleans Garai’s body.

Sexual pleasure from a woman’s perspective is a key theme as ‘Annie’ negotiates her role as a wife, mother to boys, lover. As her socio-economic situation changes and she becomes a divorcee academic, the question of whether greater freedom will materialise is raised.

This is theatre as its most intensely involving but it’s not without its lighter moments. Parodied advertising adds context as does music.

Oft-times humour is wild: adolescent ‘Annie’ humping a table; Garai as ‘Annie’s’ older lover having sex with Mckee as they extol the virtues of her would-be novel - about the self, of course - and what’s not to love about a satirised 80s aerobics class?

The personal becomes a universal biography of post-war Western Europe and the ceaseless longing to find meaning and live a life without judgement is keenly felt.

As time proves so ephemeral, the desire to cherish every moment is acutely portrayed - the need ‘to capture the light.’