Wednesday, February 18, 2004

DEMOCRACY

Good reviews for Democracy, Michael Frayn's Democracy that is. Whilst
Sir David Hare's controversial Permanent Way is garnering all the attention after its debut in the National's Cottesloe Theatre, the play it has replaced has moved to the larger Lyttleton.

Last Thursday's performance was packed to the rafters. That came as no surprise after the first act which crackled with political intrigue and espionage.

From the Independent.

"The play is wonderfully alert to the piquant paradoxes and ironic twists of this intensely tricky period in Germany's conversation with itself. Initially distrusting the sincerity of Brandt's Ostpolitik, the East Germans wind up more intent on keeping the Chancellor in power than many of his own resentful SDP colleagues. As sketched here, post-war West Germany is a world where power depends on unstable, ill-natured coalitions and a bizarre partner-swapping game where an old ex-Communist can find himself forced into bed politically with an elderly former Nazi. Only Brandt, who fled the Gestapo and worked for the resistance in Scandinavia, is untainted by the war - though, to some, clean hands are themselves suspect."

This was a taught, well scripted, superbly produced play that grabbed my attention from the outset. Things slowed a bit in after the interval, but as the reviews say it's a function of the story.

The Telegraph.

"It is, of course, the spy-story element, so familiar from the Cold War novels of Le Carre and Deighton, that initially grabs attention. Almost as soon as he became Chancellor, Brandt was shadowed by one Gunter Guillaume, an apparently servile, nondescript functionary, who eventually became his personal assistant. He served Brandt devotedly, but he was equally devoted to his other role of spying for the Stasi."

Brandt's term as Chancellor is but a dim memory apart from his Kennedy-esque features and that unforgettable event when he knelt after laying a wreath at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto dead. That was a unique cleansing moment, admitting guilt and wiping away the hurt of German occupation during the Second World War. Even on stage this was a moving event.

From the Guardian.

"Roger Allam's Brandt is one of the best portrayals of a politician I have ever seen in that it shows how total public command coexists with depressive private uncertainty. And Conleth Hill as Guillaume combines exactly the right moon-faced anonymity with a rapt capacity for hero-worship. David Ryall as Wehner and Jonathan Coy as Brandt's aide also stand out in a play that shows how the divided selves of chancellor and spy echo the contradictions of the two Germanies. "

Highly recommended.

:: Posted by pete @ 17:07