Berlin / Wall

A HighTide co-production with Aldeburgh Music.

Directed by award-winning director Stephen Daldry, David Hare performs a one-off double bill of his latest plays BERLIN and WALL,

In two contrasted readings, Hare describes a place where a famous wall has come down; then visits a place where a wall is going up.

BERLIN

‘Berlin is the testicles of the West. Every time I want to make the West scream, I squeeze on Berlin.’ Nikita Khrushchev

For his whole adult life, David Hare has been visiting the city which so many young people regard as the most exciting in Europe. But there’s something in Berlin’s elusive character which makes him feel he’s always missing the point.

Now, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the wall, he reads a 55-minute meditation about Germany’s restored capital ­ both what it represents in European history, and the peculiar part it has played in his own life.

WALL

The Israeli/Palestine security fence will one day stretch 486 miles, from one end of Israel to the other. It will be four times as long as the Berlin wall, and in places twice as high.

In 40 minutes, Hare presents a history of the wall’s building, an account of the lives of those who live on either side of it, and an exploration of the philosophy behind it.

Berlin / Wall was performed at HighTide Festival 2009.