Writer: Felix Brown
Director: Michael James Forde
Friends in Berlin, written and performed by Felix Brown, tells the fascinating story of William Patrick Hitler, the son of Hitler’s half-brother, Alois, and his Irish wife, Bridget Dowling. The couple met while Alois was working in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. William Patrick visits Berlin as an adult and discovers his unknown German relatives, including his uncle Adolph, and therein lies the dramatic tension waiting in the background to unfold.
As a writer and actor, Felix Brown shapes all the elements of suspense, complication, climax, and resolution in this fifty-five-minute piece. The monologues are crafted to advance the action and allow us to observe the inner characterization of William Patrick.
Michael James Forde, as director, maintains minutely graded steps, carefully building pitch and pace in the scenes between Tom (Kyle Hixon) and Felix Brown. Both characterizations are acutely observed with panache and polish.
Martin Cahill’s effective design serves the play well, setting the action in the landscape of Berlin in the 1930s, through minimalism. Posters of the era and a smoke machine draw us into the denizens and nightlife of a decadent city.
Costumes by Bairbre Nĺ Chaoimh are reminiscent of black and white gangster movies, of the Film Noir genre so popular in films starring Marlene Dietrich and Humphrey Bogart.
Props are essential in creating period pieces. Drinking glasses change from plain to crystal to show the movement of time, and to highlight that the protagonist’s fortune has changed. A note of opprobrium, however, in the choice of cigarettes, untipped cigarettes were the merchandise of the day.
Lighting is evocative, however, at certain times in the production, the lighting could tighten around the actors to focus our attention on a shift of setting rather than spread to encompass the whole set.
In the execution and denouement of the play, I would have welcomed closure in the script around Tom (who Kyle Hixon plays superbly). I was left with the question, ‘What happened to Tom?’ But perhaps I missed something!
A very engaging and well-balanced production, and the team is to be highly commended for bringing this skeleton of a hidden story to the Irish stage.
Runs Until 31st May 2025.
