Howard Brenton, Berlin Bertie

Steve Barfield (University of Human Development, Suleymanyia, Iraqi Kurdistan)

Ed. by Aleks Sierz, Independent Scholar - Europe
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1992

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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Howard Brenton’s

Berlin Bertie

(Royal Court, 1992) is a play about the impact of the Fall of the Berlin Wall in terms of uniting two sisters, both fleeing from their previous lives. Their stories are listened to by Bertie, a superannuated agent of the Stasi (the state security police in the former East Germany), who is also building a new life after the fall of the East German Socialist state. The action of the play takes place over the Easter bank holiday weekend, 13th-15th April 1990, in a maisonette on a South London council housing estate. Unusually for Brenton, this is a largely psychological study of the confrontation of the main characters, whose desire for transformation is matched with a moment of massive historical and political transfiguration in Europe. It is also a play…

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974 words

Citation: Barfield, Steve. "Berlin Bertie". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 May 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16809, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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