The notices for The Lives of Others are in, and they are warmer than a stage version of a much-loved film can usually expect, though the enthusiasm is not unanimous. Robert Icke adapts and directs Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Oscar-winning 2006 film about a Stasi officer who bugs a playwright and his actress partner in 1984 East Berlin, with Keira Knightley, Luke Thompson and Stephen Dillane leading the company at the Adelphi Theatre. Seven critics give it five stars, and nearly all of them single out Dillane’s silent listener and Hildegard Bechtler’s revolving apartment. Where they part company is over restraint: the doubters, The Guardian and The Arts Desk among them, think the stage version spells out what the film left unsaid.
4.2 / 5 from 17 criticsThe verdict: twenty reviews in so far. Seven critics give it five stars, six give it four and four give it three, while The Times, the Financial Times and The Telegraph have filed behind paywalls without a rating we could read. Across the 17 critics who score it, the average is 4.2 out of 5. Admirers and doubters alike single out Stephen Dillane’s Wiesler; the argument is over the staging, which most find thrilling and The Guardian, The Arts Desk and The Stage think loses the film’s subtlety.
What are critics saying about The Lives of Others?
WhatsOnStage
“Keira Knightley, Luke Thompson and Stephen Dillane bring the surveillance thriller to the stage”
Reviewer: Sarah Crompton
Sarah Crompton gives the production full marks. She hails it as a gripping version of a magnificent film, with the drive and tension of a thriller, and a design that turns the bugged flat into the whole world of the play.
“Icke’s direction superbly charts the way that Wiesler becomes increasingly entwined with his subjects’ lives”
She relishes the way Icke keeps reminding us that we are in a theatre, with the wings and the stagehands left in view, and comes out of it deeply moved.
The Standard
“Keira Knightley's return to the stage is revolutionary”
Reviewer: Nick Curtis
Nick Curtis welcomes Knightley back to the London stage after 15 years, but insists this is an ensemble evening rather than a star vehicle, with design, sound and music as central to Icke’s vision as the acting.
“But it’s impossible to take your eyes off Dillane, with his grey demeanour, exhausted flyaway hair and small, fussy gestures.”
He rates Knightley, Thompson and Paul Higgins highly as well, and picks out Andrew Woodall’s menacing minister Hempf.
BroadwayWorld
“Robert Icke's haunting adaptation is powerful and beautifully staged”
Reviewer: Aliya Al-Hassan
Aliya Al-Hassan is held from start to finish and reckons the star casting pays off right across the company.
“Stephen Dillane is the standout as Wiesler, giving a masterclass in understated yet utterly human acting.”
She concedes a slightly slow start, but thinks Icke’s staging alone justifies the ticket, and approves of the actors keeping their own accents rather than putting on German ones.
London Box Office
“a technical coup de théâtre”
Reviewer: Stuart King
Stuart King sees the night as a triumph for the partnership of Icke and his designer Hildegard Bechtler, whose set he calls superb.
“The director/designer pairing is infused with an innate mutual understanding and their execution here is a finely orchestrated gem.”
He also praises Nick Holder’s blacklisted director Jerska and Calum Finlay’s Hauser, though he found Paul Higgins’s Grubitz too jittery to convince.
Theatre Weekly
“A truly unmissable piece of theatre”
Reviewer: Greg Stewart
Greg Stewart treats it less as a spy thriller than as a study of conscience, and thinks the adaptation works on every front.
“it may just be the most exciting new play to arrive in the West End this year.”
He admires the restraint of Dillane’s Wiesler, finds Knightley deeply affecting in the later scenes, and gives special credit to Bechtler’s rotating apartment and Max Richter’s score.
Plays International
“this remarkable piece of work”
Reviewer: Jane Edwardes
Jane Edwardes notes that films rarely survive the move to the stage, and argues that this one does because Icke makes the material his own instead of bowing to the original.
“That makes Robert Icke the ideal director for this theatrical version of The Lives of Others…”
She hears a Brechtian streak in its reminders that we are an audience, calls Dillane superb, and hopes the three leads between them fill a house more used to musicals.
The Arts Dispatch
“Icke’s theatrical genius”
Reviewer: Jim Keaveney
Jim Keaveney says the sheer scale of Bechtler’s revolving set earns the play its place in a big musical house, and that all three leads excel.
“However, Dillane is the real star, masterfully creating the quiet, unassuming Stasi captain.”
He also likes the links Icke draws between 1984 and our own age of surveillance, sharpened by Tal Yarden’s video design.
The Independent
“Keira Knightley's West End return is a must-see”
Reviewer: Alice Saville
Alice Saville sees Icke’s staging as a series of handsome cages for the people inside them, finds Thompson’s Dreyman touchingly hopeful, and thinks casting Knightley as a famous actress pays off on more than one level.
“Dillane gives this act of listening an almost spiritual dimension, sinking to the floor in reverence…”
Her reservation is the last scene, set after the fall of the Wall, which she feels over-explains and lets the tension built up across the evening drain away.
LondonTheatre.co.uk
“Keira Knightley, Luke Thompson and Stephen Dillane are riveting in this queasy surveillance drama”
Reviewer: Marianka Swain
Marianka Swain admires the way the production makes the audience complicit in the Stasi’s eavesdropping, even if the parallels are sometimes laid on thick.
“Stephen Dillane is remarkable as the lonely Wiesler, who begins by giving dry, bureaucratic reports…”
She calls Knightley inspired casting as a glamorous star and just as good as the insecure woman offstage, and rates Thompson, Higgins and Woodall too.
City AM
“Keira Knightley stars in gripping adaptation”
Reviewer: Steve Dinneen
Steve Dinneen enjoys an opening that casts the audience as collaborators, and reads the piece as a love story at heart, with flashes of comedy amid the gloom.
“While it’s based on the Oscar-winning 2006 German-language film, theatre feels like the perfect medium for this story.”
He is taken with the look of it too, down to the period flat with its see-through walls.
West End Best Friend
“A gripping story of surveillance, control and the fine line between observer and those being observed.”
Reviewer: Alexandra Tullah
Alexandra Tullah enjoys Dillane’s quietly spoken opening address and the smooth scene changes, and finds Knightley compelling as Christa-Maria.
“Nevertheless, Robert Icke has created a very slick production, with some inventive staging and strong visuals.”
Her doubts are that some turns of the plot are hurried past and that two hours without an interval feels long.
All That Dazzles
“Patience pays off with this production”
Reviewer: Daz Gale
Daz Gale admits the first ten minutes left him cold, but says the evening soon won him over.
“As Christa-Maria Sieland, Knightley is astonishing with her ability to go from one extreme to another, always convincingly.”
His standout, though, is Luke Thompson, whose Dreyman he sees as the glue of the evening, while he finds Dillane’s ambiguous Wiesler intriguing.
Theatre and Tonic
“the beauty of art and humanity”
Reviewer: Ziwen
Ziwen is struck by the sound and design that expose the couple’s flat to the listener, and by a large ensemble that fills the party, television studio and bookshop scenes.
“Yet what makes the story truly unforgettable is the beauty of art and humanity…”
The quibble is that the short, film-like scenes leave little room to get to know some characters, the director Jerska above all.
The Guardian
“Keira Knightley brings star power to Robert Icke’s Stasi drama”
Reviewer: Arifa Akbar
Arifa Akbar thinks the film’s power lay in its restraint and that the stage version tips it towards melodrama; she finds Thompson too boyish as Dreyman.
“His inner change is portrayed too subtly and not subtly enough.”
She credits Icke with real suspense built from sound, light and movement, but finds a late television interview that explains the plot unnecessary, and the whole short of what it attempts.
The Arts Desk
“slick staging saves an unwieldy adaptation of the hit film”
Reviewer: Helen Hawkins
Helen Hawkins admires Bechtler’s set and the bold idea of putting Wiesler in the room with the people he is bugging, but feels it takes away the walls that made the couple’s privacy matter.
“Dillane’s performance grows as the script allows, from rigid policeman to mischievous subversive…”
She thinks Knightley looks the part and Andrew Woodall’s Hempf is spot on, but detects an artificiality beneath all the technology, and too many ideas jostling for space.
LondonTheatre1
“a two-hour slog”
Reviewer: Chris Omaweng
Chris Omaweng, coming to it without having seen the film, found the pace too slow and the doubling of what we watch with Wiesler’s reports of it redundant.
“The pacing in this play was too slow for my liking, unhelped by an irritating habit to ‘show’ as well as ‘tell’.”
He thinks Knightley handles her character’s dilemmas with nuance and the scene changes are well managed, but would have cut the evening to ninety minutes.
Also reviewed by: The Stage (Dave Fargnoli, three stars, “Compelling study of paranoia”), The Times (Clive Davis, “Keira Knightley shimmers in a frivolous show”), the Financial Times (“Keira Knightley-starring surveillance drama The Lives of Others is an unsettling must-see”) and The Telegraph (“You can’t take your eyes off Keira Knightley in The Lives of Others”), whose reviews sit behind paywalls.
Best of Theatre published the production photographs as the notices landed, in Stephen Dillane listens in: production photos from Robert Icke’s The Lives of Others. For more from this week’s openings, see our roundups of The Moth at the Finborough Theatre and Big Love at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre.
The Lives of Others is booking at the Adelphi Theatre until Saturday 9 January 2027.
