Berlin, Joanna Murray-Smith’s play, which premiered in Melbourne in 2021, is now being performed in Sydney for the first time at Flight Path Theatre in Marrickville. The play is a two-hander set over the course of a single night. The premise is simple: a German bartender, Charlotte (Olivia Xegas), brings an Australian backpacker, Tom (Harry Reid) home to her apartment. Initially, the only dramatic tension appears to be whether there is any romantic spark between the two, but their dialogue soon starts to turn to darker and more existential questions – both Charlotte and Tom have had experiences that have led them to reflect on their own mortality.
Reid and Xegas do a good job of holding the audience’s attention, particularly early on when Berlin takes a while to move beyond the dynamics of a hook-up. It is a demanding play to perform – it’s just the two of them on stage for 80 minutes without an intermission – but they acquit themselves well through the fairly abrupt shifts in dynamics between the characters that the play requires.
It gradually becomes apparent that Charlotte’s and Tom’s personal experiences are setting the background against which Murray-Smith explores the real thematic concern of the play: namely, intergenerational trauma. The writer is particularly interested in the way history affects the population of Berlin.
In her writer’s notes, she explains the play was inspired by her own trips to Berlin and says, “I applauded Germany for its determination to relentlessly examine its own soul. But I have also felt sympathy for the young, who I presumptuously imagine might struggle to find ‘the lightness of being’. Should a line ever be drawn?” These are interesting questions, although I wonder whether the supposed struggle to find a lightness of being is a false premise. Murray-Smith also candidly tells us that she has an answer: “I think I know the answer to that, especially with the recent rise of the Far Right.”
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Perhaps because this is the more compelling answer, or perhaps because Murray-Smith has put her finger on the scale, it is hard to feel much sympathy for Charlotte’s position throughout the play. Both Tom and Charlotte have a winsome naivete that could make audiences question the degree of ironic detachment they are supposed to feel, but it is hard to imagine many viewers who would sympathise more with Charlotte’s ahistoricism (bordering at times on nihilism) than Tom’s attempts to grapple with his Jewish identity and the legacy of the Holocaust.
Berlin by Joanna Murray-Smith
Flight Path Theatre
Director: Peta Downes
Production Designer: Megan Venhoek
Lighting Designer: Capri Harris
Stage Manager and AV Designer: Emily Clements
Cast: Harry Reid, Olivia Xegas
Berlin will be performed until 19 October 2024.
