Thirteen more actors join Keira Knightley, Stephen Dillane and Luke Thompson in Robert Icke’s stage adaptation of The Lives of Others, which begins previews at the Adelphi Theatre on 14 October. Rehearsal images have been released alongside the casting.
Jamie Ankrah, Jake Benson, Matt Ray Brown, Lucy Doyle, Calum Finlay, Josh Gordon, Paul Higgins, Leda Hodgson, Nick Holder, Sibylla Meienberg, Irfan Shamji, Richard Sutton and Andrew Woodall complete the company for the world premiere of The Lives of Others, which begins previews at the Adelphi Theatre on 14 October and opens on 29 October.
Keira Knightley plays Christa-Maria Sieland; her stage work includes The Children’s Hour and The Misanthrope, for which she was Olivier-nominated. Stephen Dillane, who won the Evening Standard Award and a Tony for The Real Thing, plays the Stasi officer Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler. Luke Thompson, Olivier-nominated for A Little Life and a series regular on Bridgerton, plays the playwright Georg Dreyman.
The thirteen bring a long list of London credits between them. Paul Higgins’s Almeida work includes The Doctor and Romeo and Juliet; Andrew Woodall was in Great Britain at the National Theatre and the Theatre Royal Haymarket; Irfan Shamji played in Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith; and Lucy Doyle comes from The Mousetrap at St Martin’s.
Robert Icke adapts and directs, from Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s 2006 German film. The production reunites Icke with producer Sonia Friedman, after Oedipus, Manhunt, Hamlet, The Doctor, Oresteia and 1984; Friedman also produced Knightley in The Children’s Hour.
The play is set in East Germany in 1984. A writer and an actor are placed under state surveillance, and from the attic above their flat a Stasi officer listens for evidence of subversion — a job that turns out to change the listener as much as the listened-to.
The set and costume designer is Hildegard Bechtler, with lighting by Jon Clark, sound by Giles Thomas and video by Tal Yarden. Max Richter writes original music, and casting is by Julia Horan CDG. The production is presented by Sonia Friedman Productions and Winkler & Smalberg.
Rehearsal photographs by Danny Kaan.
The Lives of Others runs at the Adelphi Theatre from 14 October 2026 to 9 January 2027, with press night on 29 October. Tickets start at £35.
