Adapted from Émile Zola's novel

by Olwen Wymark

Born into squalor and poverty in 19th century Paris, Nana had always wanted a better life – a life of money, of luxury, of fame.

Plucked from the gutter to appear as Venus in a tawdry operetta at a third rate variety hall, her debut should have been a disaster. Her manners are coarse. Her movements lack grace. She sings dreadfully. But when Venus begins to remove her clothes, something happens. The house falls silent. Nobody moves. And a star is born . . .

Within days, Nana is the only topic in Parisian society. Nana discovers that her flesh casts a spell unlike any other and she can have whatever – or whoever – she wants. Whether aristocrat or industrialist, youth or grandfather, seducer or innocent, it seems no man can resist her charms. And Nana, the golden fly preying upon the rich and the powerful, relishes the havoc she causes as fortunes are squandered, marriages destroyed – and lives lost.

But then, at the very height of her fame, Nana makes a fatal mistake and chooses the wrong man – and so begins a chaotic descent back into the streets from which she came. And as she falls, she drags the rest of the world down with her . . .

When first published in 1880, Émile Zola’s classic novel was banned in Britain, its savage critique of a corrupt, decadent elite destroyed by its own appetites considered too shocking for polite society. Olwen Wymark’s dynamic, highly theatrical and sexually charged adaptation turns Zola’s novel into a powerful and provocative piece of modern drama.