2666 challenges: adapting Roberto Bolaño's novel for the stage

Producing a theatrical version of Bolaño’s 900-page novel, with its large cast and extreme variations in tone, was a terrifying prospect for director Robert Falls. One five-hour play later, he explains the irresistible call of Bolaño’s epic work

It began in 2006. I was in Barcelona attending a theatre festival, and everywhere I went I saw giant posters featuring photographs of pink crosses in the desert, emblazoned with the title 2666. It was a fascinating, enigmatic and mysterious image.

I soon learned that these posters were advertisements for the equally enigmatic novel 2666 by author Roberto Bolaño, his final work before his death three years earlier. Although he was born in Chile and spent his formative years in Mexico City, Bolaño lived in Barcelona during his final years and the book was published there shortly after his death.

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