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What is The Lives of Others about?

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s remarkable 2006 film won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Now this powerful work is being brought to the stage with The Lives of Others play London, adapted and directed by Robert Icke, and starring Keira Knightley, Stephen Dillane and Luke Thompson.

The story is set in East Germany in 1984, and centres on the Stasi (the state secret police) spying on residents via targeted audio surveillance. Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler is ordered to spy on a playwright, Georg Dreyman, even though he seems like a model citizen. It transpires that Wiesler’s superior, Minister of Culture Bruno Hempf, is actually lusting after Dreyman’s girlfriend, an actress named Christa-Maria Sieland. Paranoia mounts and Wiesler is forced to make a choice between state orders and what he believes in.

The Lives of Others theatre production is a major event. The show will revisit this fraught period of European history, while also exploring pertinent themes such as artistic expression and censorship, the role of the state in our lives, how art intersects with politics, and the price of sticking by your principles. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/lives-of-others-lead.jpg?imwidth=640

What is The Lives of Others about?

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s remarkable 2006 film won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Now this powerful work is being brought to the stage with The Lives of Others play London, adapted and directed by Robert Icke, and starring Keira Knightley, Stephen Dillane and Luke Thompson.

Buy tickets nowThe Lives of Others

The story is set in East Germany in 1984, and centres on the Stasi (the state secret police) spying on residents via targeted audio surveillance. Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler is ordered to spy on a playwright, Georg Dreyman, even though he seems like a model citizen. It transpires that Wiesler’s superior, Minister of Culture Bruno Hempf, is actually lusting after Dreyman’s girlfriend, an actress named Christa-Maria Sieland. Paranoia mounts and Wiesler is forced to make a choice between state orders and what he believes in.

The Lives of Others theatre production is a major event. The show will revisit this fraught period of European history, while also exploring pertinent themes such as artistic expression and censorship, the role of the state in our lives, how art intersects with politics, and the price of sticking by your principles. 

How to buy tickets for The Lives of Others

You can find seats for the London production of The Lives of Others on Telegraph Tickets. Check the site for the latest prices and book The Lives of Others Adelphi Theatre tickets.

Cast and creatives

The Lives of Others West End cast features stars of stage and screen such as Keira Knightley (Olivier Award nominated for The Misanthrope, Oscar nominated for The Imitation Game and Pride and Prejudice), Stephen Dillane (Tony Award for The Real Thing, Angels in America, Game of Thrones, The Tunnel) and Luke Thompson (Bridgerton, Olivier Award nomination for A Little Life, Love’s Labour’s Lost).

The production is adapted and directed by the Olivier Award-winning Robert Icke, whose numerous hit shows include Romeo & Juliet, Player Kings (starring Ian McKellen), The Doctor, 1984 and Oresteia. It features design by the Olivier Award-winning Hildegard Bechtler (Oedipus), lighting by Tony Award-winning Jon Clark (The Lehman Trilogy) and original music by the acclaimed composer Max Richter (Hamnet).

Current cast

Keira Knightley

Stephen Dillane

Luke Thompson

The details

Where is The Lives of Others playing?

The Uprising Ahead of a trailer release tomorrow, the first poster has been unveiled for Paul Greengrass’ new medieval England war film “The Uprising” starring Andrew Garfield. The film opens in cinemas September 11th.

Game of Thrones actor Stephen Dillane, Feud: Capote vs the Swans star Tom Hollander, Irish actor Stanley Townsend, and Sky Yang, who starred in Last Days, have joined the rabble-rousing forces of The Uprising, Paul Greengrass' period drama being made by Focus Features.

Andrew Garfield leads the feature that is now in production, portraying the leader of a ferocious rebellion against the tyranny of King Richard II. As the war burns across England, he forms an army of the people to face the King's might in a fight for justice and survival.

Also lined up as embattled peasants and assorted overlords are Jamie Bell, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman and Katherine Waterston.

Jason Blum is producing through Blumhouse, alongside Gregory Goodman, Joanna Kaye and Greengrass. Lars Sylvest will also produce through Thank You Pictures and Joe Neurauter will produce through Supernix. 

Focus, which is behind the buzzy award season movies Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao, and Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, is set to distribute the film domestically.

BAFTA-winning actor Dillane is best known for his performance of Stannis Baratheon, a tragically misguided lord in HBO's Game of Thrones.  

Hollander can be seen portraying Alfred Hitchcock in Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the third season of Ryan Murphy's gripping anthology series. This marked Hollander's second collaboration with Murphy, following his acclaimed starring turn as Truman Capote in FX's Feud: Capote vs. The Swans opposite Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Demi Moore, Chloë Sevigny and Molly Ringwald. That role earned him an Emmy nomination.

Townsend is an Irish-born actor of stage and screen who has worked with directors such as Mike Leigh, Stephen Frears, Mike Newell, Nick Hytner, Roger Michel, Sam Mendes, Neil Jordan and Catherine Hardwicke, among others.

Yang portrayed doomed missionary John Allen Chau in Last Days, the indie drama directed by Justin Lin that debuted at Sundance earlier this year. He also appeared in Zack Snyder's two-part sci-fi epic Rebel Moon alongside Sofia Boutella, Ed Skrein, and Charlie Hunnam.

Dillane is repped by Independent Talent Group while Hollander is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content, and United Agents.

The One Game episode 2 Saturday.

The Mail on Sunday, 26 Apr 2026, By Andrew Young

IDRIS Elba’s character DCI John Luther might be best known for his shadowy dealings on the gritty streets of inner-city London.

But the second feature-length film starring the brooding detective will see him fighting crime in the unlikely setting of Southwold – an upmarket Edwardian resort on the Suffolk coast.

The town – famed for its quaint charm and colourful beach huts – might seem an unlikely backdrop to Luther’s psychologically charged storylines.

And locals were shocked to see Elba, 53, filming scenes for the upcoming Netflix movie on Southwold’s 623ft-long pier this week.

The film features the disgraced detective being secretly called back into service to investigate ‘a wave of brutal, seemingly random murders in London’.

Netflix has not revealed how the action shifts from London to Southwold, which might be a more suitable backdrop for an Agatha Christie whodunnit.

The production is a follow-up to 2023’s Luther: The Fallen Sun, which saw Elba’s character fired from the police and jailed before breaking out to catch wealthy serial killer David Robey, played by Andy Serkis.

The sequel will see Ruth Wilson, 44, reprise her role as psychopathic killer Alice Morgan, who is also a love interest for Luther.

Her character had been seemingly killed off in the finale of the fifth series of the BBC show when she fell from scaffolding during a confrontation with the detective.

However, her body was never found – leaving an opening for a potential return. The upcoming film will also see Dermot Crowley star as shrewd detective superintendent Martin Schenk.

The 79-year-old appeared in all five series of the show as well as the first Netflix film.

Luther appeared to be in conversation with two new characters, played by Stephen Dillane and Anya Chalotra, while filming in Southwold.

Dillane, 69, is best known for starring as Stannis Baratheon in Game of Thrones, while 30-year-old Ms Chalotra, pictured right, shot to fame as sorceress Yennefer in Neflix fantasy series The Witcher.

Elba swapped Luther’s trademark tweed overcoat and tie for a casual green parka and dark sweatshirt as he filmed on the pier. At one stage the actor, who was knighted in the New Year Honours list, was seen comforting Ms Chalotra’s character, who was wearing a bright orange coat and jeans. Filming for the movie, which has not yet been given a title, began in London earlier this year.