Berlin

A reading by David Hare. Berlin is the testicles of the West. Every time I want to make the West scream, I squeeze on Berlin.' Nikita Khrushchev. For his whole adult life, David Hare has been visiting the city which so many young people regard as the most exciting in Europe. But there's something in Berlin's elusive character which makes him feel he's always missing the point. Now, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, Hare reads a 55-minute meditation about Germany's restored capital both what it represents in European history, and the peculiar part it has played in his own life. Of all British dramatists, Hare is the one who has always seemed to have the sharpest awareness of what is going on around him, which is what makes him such an eagerly sought-after journalist.' Michael Billington.