Rudi, a young German man, stands outside his father’s study in Paraguay, smoking cigarettes. He directly addresses the audience and tells the story of how he discovered his father was a Nazi SS doctor at Auschwitz. After his friend, Hermann, revals to Rudi the truth about his father, Rudi runs away to Berlin to create a new life. But when Rudi meets Sarah, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, in the German Federal Archives, Rudi’s past begins to catch up with him. Predominantly told through direct-address monologues and flashback scenes, East of Berlin is a great play to show off a strong male actor.
East of Berlin was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize after it debuted to critical acclaim in Toronto in 2007.
East of Berlin guide sections
