Joanna Murray-Smith
Joanna Murray-Smith. Photo © Grant Sparkes-Carroll

Re-enter stage right

After a year writing for the screen, Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith is ecstatic to be back in the theatre with her new play Berlin, a nail-biting two-hander about young love and inherited guilt.

At the start of 2020, life was feeling decidedly hunky-dory for Joanna Murray-Smith. The prolific, popular Australian playwright, who has a significant international profile, was looking forward to the biggest year of her career. Not only was Melbourne Theatre Company scheduled to premiere her new play Berlin in April, but there were productions of Berlin planned in London and Germany.

A swathe of her other plays – including Switzerland, Honour, Songs for Nobodies, Fury and...