Everything you need to know about 'The Lives of Others' in the West End

Coming this autumn, Robert Icke's stage version of the Oscar-winning German film stars Keira Knightley, Luke Thompson, and Stephen Dillane.

Summary

• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Oscar-winning film is adapted for the stage and directed by Robert Icke
• It is a thriller about surveillance in East Germany in the 1980s
• The cast is led by Keira Knightley; Luke Thompson and Stephen Dillane
• The production plays from 14 October to 9 January 2027

This autumn, a new screen-to-stage adaptation comes to the West End. The 2006 film The Lives of Others is a modern classic of European filmmaking. Set in East Berlin a few years prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, a Stasi officer is ordered to spy on a playwright and his actress partner, and in the process questions the system to which he has devoted his entire life.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film is both adapted for the stage and directed by Olivier winner Robert Icke, and it boasts a starry cast led by Keira Knightley, Luke Thompson, and Stephen Dillane. It’s sure to be one of the most sought-after tickets of the autumn season.

Says producer Sonia Friedman: “I’ve been obsessed with The Lives of Others ever since I first saw it – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s exquisite, haunting, and completely masterful film, and there is no one better than Robert Icke to bring this to life onstage. He has this rare ability to combine huge ideas with real emotional truth, and I know he and the company will find a way to realise it that feels both unexpected and completely thrilling.” Read on to learn more about what to expect from what’s sure to be a compelling and technically ambitious piece of work.

Book The Lives of Others tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

What is The Lives of Others about?

The Lives of Others is a political thriller set in East Germany in 1984 that charts the covert audio surveillance of a group of residents in an East Berlin neighbourhood. Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler becomes a voyeur when he is ordered to spy on playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend and leading lady Christa-Maria Sieland. The piece explores the double dealings, censorship, and personal and political resentments simmering in East Germany in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Is The Lives of Others based on a film?

The Lives of Others is based on the 2006 film written and directed by the German-Austrian filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The film won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film and the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language.

Who wrote The Lives of Others?

The Lives of Others is based on von Donnersmarck’s screenplay and adapted for the stage by Robert Icke (who also directs). Icke’s other writing credits include the verbatim pay Manhunt, and adaptations of classics including Uncle Vanya, Mary Stuart, and Oedipus. His adaptation of Romeo & Juliet starring Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe is running in the West End through 20 June.

Where is The Lives of Others being performed?

The Lives of Others will be performed at the Adelphi Theatre, on the Strand. This art deco venue seats around 1,500 audience members and usually houses musicals, most recently Back to the Future. Other productions seen at the Adelphi have included Waitress, Kinky Boots, and Made in Dagenham. Over the summer, the venue will host a return engagement of The Comedy About Spies.

When is The Lives of Others being performed?

The Lives of Others will run from 14 October 2026 to 9 January 2027. Performances take place from Monday to Friday at 7:30pm, with matinees on Tuesdays and Saturdays at 2:30pm.

How long is The Lives of Others?

The running time of The Lives of Others is to be confirmed.

Who is in the cast of The Lives of Others?

The Lives of Others marks Keira Knightley’s return to the stage. Knightley is an Oscar nominee for Pride and Prejudice and The Imitation Game and her other film credits include Bend It Like Beckham, The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Atonement, The Duchess, Anna Karenina, and Colette. She currently stars in the spy series Black Doves. Knightley made her West End debut in The Misanthrope in 2009 (which returns to London in a National Theatre production with Sandra Oh this June), for which she earned an Olivier nomination, and she then appeared in The Children’s Hour in 2011. She made her New York debut in the title role in Thérèse Raquin in 2015.

Knightley is joined by Luke Thompson, who led the latest season of Bridgerton as artistic second son Benedict. Thompson was Olivier nominated for A Little Life and previously worked with Robert Icke on Hamlet (as Laertes) and Oresteia (as Orestes). He most recently played Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost for the RSC.

The cast is also led by Stephen Dillane, perhaps most widely known for his roles as Stannis Baratheon in Game of Thrones and Thomas Jefferson in John Adams. He won a Tony Award for Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and he most recently appeared on stage in Martin Crimp’s When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other at the National Theatre.

Further casting is to be announced.

Who is in The Lives of Others creative team?

The Lives and Others is adapted and directed by Robert Icke, who most recently directed Noah Jupe and Sadie Sink in Romeo and Juliet, and Mark Strong and Lesley Manville in Oedipus in London and New York (which is currently nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play and Best Direction of a Play). Icke became the youngest ever winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director in 2016 at the age of 29 for Oresteia, and he has also been Olivier nominated for 1984, The Doctor, and Oedipus. He is renowned for the clarity of his approach and his innovative use of technology.

The creative team also includes design by Olivier winner Hildegard Bechtler (After the Dance), with lighting design by Olivier and Tony winner Jon Clark (The Inheritance, The Lehman Trilogy), sound design by Giles Thomas, and original music by the multi-award-winning composer Max Richter (Hamnet).

Who are the characters in The Lives of Others?

The Lives of Others features the following characters:

Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: a Stasi officer ordered to spy on Georg Dreyman. Georg Dreyman: a playwright who presents as a model East German. Cristina-Maria Sieland: an actress and Dreyman’s girlfriend. Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz: Wielser’s superior officer. Minister Bruno Hempf: Minister of Culture, with whom Cristina-Maria is having an affair. Albert Jerska: Dreyman’s friend, a blacklisted theatre director.

What are some fun facts about The Lives of Others?

• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s parents were from East Germany (he is descended from nobility from Silesia, now part of Poland) and he has talked about the oppression that he sensed on visits during his childhood. Born in 1973, he was 16 at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
• von Donnersmarck’s other credits include the writing and direction of the 2010 thriller The Tourist starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and the writing and direction of the acclaimed 2018 German film Never Look Away.
• Another play about surveillance in East Germany is Anna by Ella Hickson, which premiered at the National Theatre’s Dorfman Theatre in 2018, and is set over the course of one evening in 1968.

Book The Lives of Others tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: The Lives of Others artwork. (Photo by Oliver Rosser/Feast Creative)