Icke’s The Lives of Others adaptation lacks subtlety — SkimNews
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- Robert Icke adapted and directed Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Oscar-winning 2006 German-language thriller The Lives of Others for the stage, centering a Stasi officer who secretly changes sides while spying on writer George Dreyman and actress Christa-Maria Sieland.
- Keira Knightley plays Christa-Maria Sieland opposite Luke Thompson’s George Dreyman; the review calls her committed but says the character is overheated and underwritten, with styling that evokes wartime Berlin rather than 1980s East Germany.
- Dillane moves physically between Dreyman and Sieland in their bugged apartment to embody rising intimacy and intrusion, but the staging offers fewer ways than the film’s lingering close-ups and looks to reveal Wiesler’s disenchantment and moral change.
- Hildegard Bechtler designed a set that shifts from an interrogation room to the couple’s revolving home through diaphanous screens; with sound, lighting and movement, it supports the “slick” and “chilling” framing shared with other coverage.
- The Lives of Others stage version strains plausibility in three specific scenes: Hempf’s assault occurs in an apartment under Stasi monitoring, Dreyman accuses Sieland before the Stasi, and David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision” plays in a café where Western music was publicly banned.
- The Lives of Others uses a penultimate television interview in which Dreyman explains the entire story and twist to his interviewer and the audience; the review calls the coda unnecessary and concludes that Icke has not carried the difficult adaptation successfully.
Why it matters: For prospective theatergoers, Icke’s remake of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s 2006 film pairs Knightley’s star appeal with praised suspense mechanics; weakened characterization, plot-logic gaps and a redundant climax blunt the play’s moral force. Icke’s staging earns technical admiration, but the production falls short of the film’s emotional and political resonance.
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