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Democracy

  • opened: 9/9/2003
  • closed: 10/16/2004
  • Wyndhams Theatre
  • Box Office: 020 7369 1736
  • Details: Booking to Oct 16 2004.
  • Summary: Michael Frayn's superlative account of how West Germany's first post-war leftist leader, Willy Brandt, was spied on by the Stasi, now transferring over to the West End. Visit theARCHIVE and type 'Democracy' to hear a discussion. Michael Frayn's latest examines the remarkable relationship that developed between Willy Brandt, West Germany's first left-of-centre Chancellor (1969-1974) and Gunter Guillaume, a Stasi agent who was unwittingly taken on as his personal assistant, gradually becoming his closest confidant. Freighted with ironies, not least amonng them the fact that Guillaume came to admire deeply the man he systematically sought to undermine, the play has won immediate praise from critics, who have hailed it as a worthy, satisfyingly complex successor to Copenhagen. Roger Allam stars as Brandt, Conleth Hill as Guillaume. (Director Michael Blakemore; designer Peter J Davison). Benedict Nightingale in The Times declared: 'I was gripped throughout by the events unfolding in an office-cum-café set, on which Conleth Hill’s Guillaume can simultaneously talk to Roger Allam’s Brandt and report to Steven Pacey, his Stasi controller. This narrative clarity is even more impressive because of Frayn’s stated theme, which is “the complexity of human arrangements and human beings themselves and the difficulties this creates in both shaping and understanding our actions”. Michael Billington in the Guardian suggested: 'what makes Frayn's play essential viewing is its Schiller-like grasp of practical politics,' adding that 'it acquires extraordinary topical resonance in its portrait of Brandt's disintegration in his second term, not least because of the enforced removal of a trusted sidekick.' The Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer confessed: 'The prospect of watching 10 middle-aged men in suits re-enacting the German politics of three decades ago may sound daunting, but attention never flags.' And he had praise for the leading actors: 'Conleth Hill is wonderfully creepy as Guillaume, the kind of man who has several Biros in his top pocket, wears a permanent obsequious smile and has the nasty habit of putting his face too close to the person he is talking to. Roger Allam memorably captures both Brandt's charisma and the doubts and depression that besiege him in his darker private moments.' Paul Taylor for The Independent commended Allam in particular, writing that as Brandt, he 'gives a highly impressive performance, capturing the man's magnetism, his constitutional melancholy and a strange sense that the idolised public figure is a mask with no one behind it.' Alistair Macaulay in the Financial Times praised the production: 'Michael Blakemore paces everything with terrific speed and clarity; my only complaint about his staging is that the final device when the scenery spills its contents on to the floor was already a cliche of London theatre 10 years ago. In every other respect, Democracy is compelling. In the Sunday papers, Victoria Segal in the Sunday Times echoed that sentiment: Democracy could have been as gloomy and fonfusing as an old archive. Yet, just as Copenhagen broke down events of global magnitude into atoms of human nature , Democracy cuts through the history to focus on personal motivation. At times it comes across as The West Wing meets the Eastern Block: hugely entertaining, packed with verbal parrying and effortless wit.' Georgina Brown in the Mail on Sunday noted that Michael Blakemore's seamless production was' staged on a set divided vertically and horizontally, illustrating the various political divisions, not just beween East and West, but within Brandt's party. Highly recommended.' Johann Hari in the Independent on Sunday argued: 'Frayn uses democracy as a dazzling extended metaphor that rages around the play like a lion - it's amazing to watch and you never know where it will leap.' Susannah Clapp in the Observer again praised the performances: 'Guillaume's tender, tricky feelings are beautifully rendered by Conleth Hill. He is a shadow, a second self, an East to Brandt's West, trying ebven to imitate his master's womanising.' [He} is funny, creepy and maddening, as he should be: sidling, quiting, wringing his hands.'
  • Author: Michael Frayn
  • Director: Michael Blakemore
  • Composer: n/a
  • Lyricist: n/aSet Designer: Peter J Davison
  • Lighting Designer: Mark Henderson
  • Costume Designer: Sue Willmington
  • Choreographer: n/a
  • Cast Details: Roger Allam (Willy Brandt); Conleth Hill (Gunter Guillaume); Steven Pacey (Arno Kretschmann). Transferred to Lyttelton (8-27 Mar 2004).