[THEATRE REVIEW] BERLIN @ Meat Market Stables Review (2025)
Passion, intellect, history and legacy explode on stage in the masterfully written, acted, directed and produced romantic, dramatic, thriller Berlin.
Australian Tom (Lachlan Hamill) has just landed in the German capital, keen to get to know the real city, not the tourist offering.
He’s directed to a small watering hole, where he meets and is immediately drawn to local bar worker, Charlotte (Georgia Latchford).
Now it is 1am. The establishment is closed and it is just the two of them at her place. She’s offered him her sofa for the night.
All the action is set in Charlotte’s apartment and the interplay between the pair is so compelling you dare not look away for a moment.
Their chat is playful, frisky and vigorous.
The spark between them is tangible as they reveal snippets about themselves, matching each other – stride for stride – in conversation.
She is a student and writer, keen to become a poet.
We learn that her parents separated when she was only seven.
Her father is a “hedge fund guy” living in London, while her mother is a “narcissistic sculptor” in Berne.
She was six when her four-year-old brother was killed in a tragic accident, after chasing a ball onto the street.
He says he’s into “industrial espionage”.
He received a little windfall after he was involved in a fatal car crash.
We find out that he is Jewish on his mother’s side and that he decided to visit Germany because his great grandmother used to live there.
They ask about each other’s recent dating history before the inevitable happens, but it’s once the deed is done that things change considerably.
That is when she catches him out on his mobile and, thereafter, the truth outs – the ugly past very much brought into the present.
Tragedy, exploitation and morality become the resounding themes.
It is the third time I have seen Berlin in the past four years.
I was introduced to it when the MTC mounted a production in 2021.
Then I saw it when Little Life Productions put it on in 2023.
The same company has done so again now, with a fresh, attractive, upgraded set (from set and costume designer Leah Downey), indicative of apartment living.
A representation of a John Constable painting that is integral to the plot takes pride of place.
The work remains just as impactful as when l first saw it. It sears into my soul.
I can’t speak highly enough of Joanna Murray-Smith’s (Bombshells, Pennsylvania Avenue) text. She is a towering writer, whose work I always long to see.
Berlin, which arguably has the most force of all her prose, was inspired by a family trip she took.
It is a sizzling tale of morass and integrity, resplendent with intellectual rigour and flirtatiousness.
The two protagonists go toe to toe for 80 minutes and the performers inhabiting the roles are so potent.
Many words are spoken. The nuances, expressions and pauses the actors’ bring to the production are crucial.
With a totally credible German accent, Georgia Latchford doesn’t miss a beat. Hers is a rich, rounded and redolent showing. She is intoxicating as Charlotte.
As Tom, Lachlan Hamill is her perfect foil, charming and giving of himself to win over Charlotte.
And then, when a mood switch is warranted, he dives headlong into it, as does she, for there is much more to Berlin than at first meets the eye.
Changing countenance is essential to the work.
Both Latchford and Hamill are particularly strong in “the game of seduction” and in stating their respective positions, in character, when it counts.
Director Erica Chestnut has crafted a mesmerising offering that raises vitally important questions about the impact of the past on the present and future.
Eighty minutes without interval, Berlin is on at Meat Market Stables until 8th March, 2025.