Democracy

In Democracy, Michael Frayn once again creates out of the unknown events of twentieth-century history a drama of extraordinary urgency and subtlety, reimagining the interactions and motivations of Willy Brandt as he became chancellor of West Germany in 1966, and those of his political circle, including Günter Guillaume, a functionary who became Brandt's personal assistant—and who was eventually exposed as an East German spy, in a discovery that helped force Brandt from office. But what circumstances allowed Brandt to become the first left-wing chancellor in forty years? And why, given his progressive policies, did the East German secret police feel it necessary to plant a spy in his office and risk bringing down his government?

Praise

"The most intelligent and gripping new English drama since Frayn's last stage outing with Copenhagen. A first-rate spy story and . . . a piece of rare ambition."—Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph

"Anyone who mourns the disappearance of leaders with real civility and magnetism—or of topical dramas with the same attributes—will be buoyed by [this] extraordinary play . . . Democracy is not another game of Cold War cat-and-mouse. It's really a play about loyalty, one that, in a satisfying way, ends up testing ours."—Peter Marks, The Washington Post

"[Democracy] achieves something close to impossible. It fascinates you with the ins and outs, ups and downs, of German politics: not in the Hitler era, not in the chaos of the 1920s, but in the supposedly boring 1970s."—Benedict Nightingale, The New York Times

About the Author(s)

Michael Frayn

Michael Frayn was born in London in 1933 and read Russian, French, and Moral Sciences (Philosophy) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He began his career as a journalist on the Manchester Guardian and the Observer. Democracy is the fourteenth of his plays, which include Noises Off, Copenhagen, and Wild Honey (adapted from Chekhov's untitled play). Frayn has done a number of translations, mostly from the Russian. His novels include Towards the End of the Morning (in the United States, Against Entropy), The Trick of It, A Landing on the Sun, Headlong, and Spies. He has published two selections of his columns, The Original Michael Frayn and The Additional Michael Frayn. He is married to the biographer and critic Claire Tomalin.

photo: Eamonn McCabe

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