“It was never a matter of the Reich or the war. It was a matter of physics.”

Summer 1945. Hitler is dead, but the war in the Pacific rages on. When six of Germany’s top nuclear scientists – including three Nobel laureates – are detained by Allied forces in an imposing manor house in the Cambridge countryside, they find themselves isolated from the outside world. Their only distractions are board games, a broken piano, and a copy of “Blithe Spirit.” As the months pass, their attention shifts to the ongoing war and thoughts of their ravaged homeland.

Their tranquil summer is disrupted by the staggering news that the Americans have succeeded where the Germans have failed: the United States has not only constructed an atomic bomb but has used it against Japan.

Katherine Moar’s thrilling debut play, “Farm Hall,” dramatizes the true story penned within the bugged walls of the real Farm Hall between July 1945 and January 1946. It was first performed at Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in March 2023 before transferring to Theatre Royal Bath, directed by Stephen Unwin. Subsequently, it moved to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in the West End in 2024.

Pages: 96, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm