The Young Vic has announced a new stage adaptation of Christian Kracht’s novel Eurotrash, starring Ben Whishaw and Kathryn Hunter. The production opens in November 2026, exploring family and European history through a darkly comic journey.

Eurotrash will play in the Young Vic’s Main House from 13 November 2026 to 9 January 2027. The play follows a blocked novelist summoned by his mother to Zurich, where they attempt to distribute her fortune amid reflections on their past and Europe’s complex history.

The adaptation is by Colin Teevan and directed by Walter Meierjohann, with set and costume design by Lizzie Clachan. The production is part of the theatre’s newly announced season and supported by the Charlotte Aitken Trust.

Kathryn Hunter takes on the role of the mother, a character she described as “an unforgettable literary creation” full of contradictions and eccentricities. She marks this project as a reunion with Ben Whishaw and longtime collaborators, nearly a decade after their last Young Vic collaboration, The Emperor.

Ben Whishaw expressed excitement about returning to the Young Vic with a team he admires and reuniting with Hunter to explore the novel’s intricate mother-son relationship. He characterised the work as “brilliant, unsettling and very funny.”

Eurotrash is centred on themes of wealth, family dynamics, and the legacies of Europe’s past, reflected through the mother’s fortune derived from arms investments and dairy products. The journey across Switzerland anchors the narrative in a geographically and historically resonant setting.

Tickets for the production will be available from 20 April, inviting audiences to engage with this darkly comic and thought-provoking adaptation during the winter season.

The adaptation adds to the growing interest in transforming notable European literary works for the stage, continuing the Young Vic’s track record of innovative and challenging theatre.