Democracy
Michael Frayn
Democracy
Democracy takes us into a world of political intrigue, espionage and betrayal . Based on real life events during the final months in office of the charismatic West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, this political tale unfolds as suspicions rise of a Stasi spy infiltrating his inner circle. Tensions mount as Brandt’s precarious coalition government is pushed to its limits.
3.5 out of 5 based on 6 reviews
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Omniscore:
|
| Location |
London |
| Venue |
Old Vic |
| Director |
Paul Miller |
| Cast |
Ed Hughes, William Hoyland, Patrick Drury, David Mallinson, Aidan McArdle |
| From |
June 2012 |
| Until |
July 2012 |
| Box Office |
0844 871 7628 |
| |
Democracy takes us into a world of political intrigue, espionage and betrayal . Based on real life events during the final months in office of the charismatic West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, this political tale unfolds as suspicions rise of a Stasi spy infiltrating his inner circle. Tensions mount as Brandt’s precarious coalition government is pushed to its limits.
Reviews
The Times
Libby Purves
“As with all political plays, there are modern resonances: a coalition government, financial stress, strikes and the ever-fresh question of where to locate the Left, somewhere between communism and social centrism. It also makes a nice companion-piece to the neighbouring National Theatre’s Last of the Haussmanns, reminding us that while the 1969 hippies were faffing around with drugs, sober men in suits were making the real difference to a world that needed peace.”
21/06/2012
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The Financial Times
Ian Shuttleworh
“As with so many Frayn plays, we get not non-stop drama but rather a series of narrations alternating with illustrative scenes, yet this structure never feels unnatural nor the story stilted.
”
22/06/2012
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The Observer
Tom Lamont
“Political coalitions come and go, a central character in Democracy is warned, but your party is for keeps; so don't ever be so foolish as to risk the latter for the former ... Apparent nods to Nick Clegg's uneasy bedding with the Tories are coincidental. Current events have only given new pertinence to an old lesson.
”
24/06/2012
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The Stage
Mark Shenton
“Democracy at least acts as a neat companion piece to its recent production of Frayn’s Noises Off that transferred successfully to the West End, showing the yin and yang of one of our most brainy playwrights. He is equally adept at the outright hilarious, meticulously constructed comedy of a theatrical farce as he is in laying out the more serious farce of coalition politics in late 1960s/early 1970s western Germany.”
21/06/2012
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The Evening Standard
Henry Hitchings
“An uncompromisingly heavyweight piece. Frayn looks probingly into the knotty banality of politics. But the political narrative is only sometimes personally involving. While Frayn is psychologically astute, especially about the nature of betrayal, the play is too slow coming to the boil. ”
21/06/2012
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The Independent on Sunday
Kate Bassett
“The core idea is intriguing, namely that Guillaume and Brandt were comparably riven personalities. If only the play dramatised that thesis, rather than spelling it out in its own margins.”
24/06/2012
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