Arbo debut work was an adaptation of
Johann Wolfgang Goethe's classic coming-of-age novel
The Sorrows of Young Werther with Toneelschuur Producties. Its staging at the 2018 Dutch Theatre Festival won Arbo the 2018 BNG Bank Theatre Prize. In Norway, Arbo directed
Henrik Ibsen's
Hærmennene på Helgeland at the 2018 Ibsen Festival. This was followed in 2019 by Ibsen's
Peer Gynt at Tromsø's
Hålogaland Teater as well as
The Revolutionaries, based on the ideas of
Albert Camus, and Roland Schimmelpfennig's
Black Water. She directed an adaptation of
Édouard Louis'
The End of Eddy. For the latter, she won
VSCD Directors' Award at the 2020 Dutch Theatre Festival and the Theatre Viewers Award. She later brought
The End of Eddy to the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Also in 2020, Arbo directed
Anton Chekhov's
Three Sisters commissioned by Toneelschuur, for which she won the 2021 Mary Dresselhuys Prize. In 2021, Arbo directed
Friedrich Schiller's
Mary Stuart She later made a Danish version of
The Hours titled
Timerne at the Royal Playhouse in Copenhagen. Arbo also adapted
Charlotte Brontë's
Jane Eyre for the
National Theatre Oslo. In 2022, Arbo adapted
Annie Ernaux's memoir
The Years for stage, which premiered at the
Het Nationale Theater in The Hague. An English adaptation of
The Years premiered at London's
Almeida Theatre in 2024 before having a run at the
Harold Pinter Theatre, marking Arbo's
West End debut. For her direction, Arbo won the
Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director. The production also received a nomination for
Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play among other accolades. Arbo started working as an associate with
Ivo van Hove, Artistic Director of the
Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA) in 2022. In 2023, Arbo was appointed Artistic Director of the ITA, taking over from van Hove, who had served in the position for 22 years. Arbo's debut work with the ITA was
Heinrich von Kleist's
Penthesilea. This was followed by the Dutch production of
Suzie Miller's
Prima Facie, an adaptation of
Lars Trier's
Melancholia in The Hague, and
Connie Palmen's
The Laws. She collaborated with the
National Theatre Oslo on
Haugtussa, incorporating the works of composer
Edvard Greig. ==Artistry==