Berlin

Berlin runs at the Kiln Theatre from 10 March to 17 April 2027, its UK debut after an acclaimed Australian premiere. It's a contemporary thriller by Joanna Murray-Smith, directed by Lucy Bailey, and it's a two-hander that keeps things tight and intimate. The story follows Tom, who's drifting through Berlin with no real plan, and Charlotte, a local working in a bar whose offer of a couch draws them together in the anonymity of the city. From there, it asks whether it's better to remember or to forget.

It's not a light one. The play works its way through generational trauma, guilt, war, immigration and grief, and it contains swearing and references to the Holocaust. It's the kind of thing that stays with you long after you've left the theatre.

Murray-Smith's work has been produced and translated into more than two dozen languages, staged on Broadway, the West End and at the Royal National Theatre, and read or performed by actors including Meryl Streep, Annette Bening, Laura Linney, Dame Eileen Atkins and Dame Diana Rigg. Lucy Bailey, who co-founded The Print Room in Notting Hill Gate, brings her own intensity to the staging.

Performances are in the evenings at 7:30pm, except for 17 March which starts at 7:00pm. Tickets are £15 to £45, and the Kiln Theatre is at 269 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 7JR.