'Tom meets Charlotte in a bar. Tom’s a foreigner on his first trip to Berlin. Charlotte’s a beguiling bartender. They’re both young, smart and charismatic – and in the early hours, they end up back at Charlotte’s Prenzlauerberg apartment. Over the course of the night, desire and longing dance hand in hand with devastating secrets. Are they just two young people falling in love, or are they contemporary victims of history’s undiluted reach?'
Source: Melbourne Theatre Company.
Set to be produced by Melbourne Theatre Company at the Sumner, Southbank Theatre, 25 April - 6 June 2020.
Director: Iain Sinclair.
Cast includes Grace Cummings.
Production cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Production rescheduled for the Sumner, Southbank Theatre, from 17 April 2021.
Director: Iain Sinclair.
Set & Costume Designer: Christina Smith.
Lighting Designer: Niklas Pajanti.
Composer & Sound Designer: Kelly Ryall.
Cast: Grace Cummings and Michael Wahr.
'A tense two-hander played against the shadows of history.'
'Joanna Murray-Smith’s latest play is a high-brow blockbuster that asks provocative questions about what it means to love a culture as well as a person.'
'Berlin, by Joanna Murray-Smith, is an intense, very wordy, imperfectly plotted, but nonetheless stylish play. ‘Stylish’ is a strange word to describe a play about young love sabotaged by tragic secrets and the legacy of the Holocaust. Shouldn’t it also be ‘heart-breaking’, ‘harrowing’, or at least ‘poignant’? Perhaps, but ‘stylish’ is the right word for a play – a thriller, in fact – that is also a swiftly argued essay on the difficulties faced by sensitive and ethical individuals who want to free themselves from the snares of history to make a new future.' (Introduction)
'Berlin, by Joanna Murray-Smith, is an intense, very wordy, imperfectly plotted, but nonetheless stylish play. ‘Stylish’ is a strange word to describe a play about young love sabotaged by tragic secrets and the legacy of the Holocaust. Shouldn’t it also be ‘heart-breaking’, ‘harrowing’, or at least ‘poignant’? Perhaps, but ‘stylish’ is the right word for a play – a thriller, in fact – that is also a swiftly argued essay on the difficulties faced by sensitive and ethical individuals who want to free themselves from the snares of history to make a new future.' (Introduction)
'Joanna Murray-Smith’s latest play is a high-brow blockbuster that asks provocative questions about what it means to love a culture as well as a person.'
'A tense two-hander played against the shadows of history.'
