There's this monstrous idiot - this monstrous elected idiot - who keeps telling his fellow-idiots to throw my books on a bonfire and beat me up in the street.

Vienna, 1934. Stefan is a successful author - widely read, universally admired, and translated into every language. His is the life of the wealthy playboy, enjoying only the finest luxuries, the toast of cultured European society. Only two things cloud his prospects: the rise of the Nazi Party, and the sudden appearance of a woman who he must know but cannot for the life of him remember.

Christopher Hampton's adaptation of the short story by Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) received its English Language premiere at Hampstead Theatre, London, in June 2024.