The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others description

Wonderfully tense and dramatic, The Lives of Others will open your eyes and make you think.

In The Lives of Others, the fact that you're being listened to changes everything. This is a compelling story exploring artistic censorship, state surveillance and the relationship between art and politics, and it is powerful stuff. Make your way to the West End's Adelphi Theatre to experience Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's remarkable Academy-winner of a triumph, adapted for the stage for the first time by Robert Icke.

Roll back time to 1984, in East Berlin, where the Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler lurks in an attic, spying on playwright Georg Dreyman and actress Christa-Maria Sieland. Wiesler is on the look-out for signs of rebellion but he soon becomes embroiled in their lives from a distance, conflicted by his covert surveillance role and the corrupt regime he works for. Is art powerful enough to change his views on morality?

The plot is inspired by the playwright's real-life childhood visits to East Germany, written in response to people's fear of the East German totalitarian state. The movie came out in 2006, in Germany, loved for its accurate portrayal of the paranoia of the time and the clandestine rebellion of the people whose city was torn in half by the Berlin Wall. No wonder it won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language.

The cast includes Christa-Maria Sieland played by Keira Knightley, Georg Dreyman by Luke Thompson and Gerd Wiesler by Stephen Dillane. Knightley is an Academy Award-nominated actress known for her extensive work on film, TV and stage, known and loved for her work in Atonement, Love Actually, The Pirates of the Caribbean, The Misanthrope and more. Luke Thompson delighted us in Bridgerton as well as on stage in A Little Life, Hamlet and Oresteia. Stephen Dillance's work includes Game of Thrones, The Crown, A Long Day's Journey Into Night, and When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other. The creative team includes designer Hildegard Bechtler, lighting designer Jon Clark and sound designer Giles Thomas, and there's original music by Max Richter.

Pure class every step of the way, The Lives of Others tickets let you experience a long-gone real-life dystopian world for yourself.

Starring:

Keira Knightley

Playing at Adelphi Theatre

409-412 Strand, London, WC2R 0NS GB (venue info)

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