This play (as well as the musical CABARET) was adapted from THE BERLIN STORIES of Christopher Isherwood (1904—1986). It looks at life in a Berlin rooming house of 1930 with a photographic eye. Chris is a struggling young writer whose novel, I AM A CAMERA, concerns the events occurring around him in the Berlin of 1930. Sally Bowles, a singer/actress, who works in a Berlin nightclub, befriends Chris and, despite her transient, bohemian existence, her platonic relationship with him remains steady. Chris comes to Sally’s assistance when she decides to have an abortion and he remains sympathetic and loyal to her no matter how outrageously she behaves. Chris, himself, gets swept up in Sally’s carefree existence and they both become involved with a wealthy but worthless American playboy. When the American deserts them, Chris realises it is time to grow up and decides to return to England to further pursue his interrupted dream of becoming a serious writer. He urges Sally to take responsibility for her own future as well, but in the end he gives up trying to change her. Sally takes off for the Riviera with yet another lover, promising to send Chris postcards and swearing eternal friendship. A secondary plot involves a romance between Natalia and Fritz, German Jews, whose plight foreshadows the looming catastrophe of the Nazi era.
