Political history is a constant source of fascination and in my lifetime there are few stories more intriguing than how the East Germans infiltrated a Stasi spy into the innermost sanctum of the West German Chacellorship. Michael Frayn's Democracy is meticulously researched and presciently captures the machinations of a disunited coalition governemnt clinging to office but, because so much is addressed to the audience, it sometimes feels like a dry lecture. By all accounts Willy Brandt was a charismatic leader but bedevilled by depression, heavy drinking and womanising - astonishingly Frayn posits that it was the threatened exposure of his numerous affairs which finally brought him down rather than the uncovering of Guillaume's espionage. Patrick Drury fails to capture any of these characteristics as a rather grey Brandt and there is almost no sense of betrayal or even surprise when Guillaume's activities are revealed. Democracy is effectively staged but offers a rather colourless portrayal of a remarkable story. - David Baxter
05 Jul 12
My journey to the Old Vic was more of a "fast-paced, gripping spy thriller" than this play, involving someone on the train lines, canceled trains, a lift from a stranger and a godawful sweaty sprint to get inside the Old Vic before the doors slammed shut. One assumes that the Old Vic's description (above) of this play was conjured by a marketing maven in a hurry rather than someone who watched the play. The play is actually a flimsy character portrait of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt (he makes astounding gestures that dazzle everyone without ever saying anything and he is a bit of a depressive) and a more substantial character portrait of his Judas of a personal assistant, Günther Guillaume, who was an East German spy, and who has feelings of loyalty and love for both East Germany and Brandt himself. The play is both soporific in it's meticulous depiction of West German political power plays, but also mesmerising in it's depiction of Guillaume falling desperately in (platonic) love with the man he is betraying. Guillaume is brilliantly matter-of-factly played by Aidan McArdle, who dissects his political actions for the audience with the scientific guile, as well as the appearance, of a Young Einstein. Patrick Drury's Brandt is like Peter Cushing's filmic "Doctor Who," above-it-all, soft yet firm of voice. He is a dreamlike still figure, who's smallest gesture is meaningful because he makes so few of them, and Drury does play godlike stillness extremely well. Ultimately, the closing net around McArdle's trapped spy offers fewer thrills than the average episode of Columbo, but the dreamy worship McArdle's Guillaume evinces for his victim is strange, creepy and ultimately quite moving. - steveatplays
04 Jul 12
I saw the first production of this play years ago and remembered it as a tense, eye opening experience that left me satisfied and wanting to know more. Sadly this new production is a bitter dissapointment. The staging is dull and formulaic, the stakes seem to be completely nowhere throughout, it times it felt like watching a three hour debate on the parliament channel and not a particularly interesting one at that. The one saving grace is Aidan Mcardle who is superb but he is surrounded by a myriad of dullness. - Tel
28 Jun 12
A review of Democracy
http://houndtang-thecomfortzone.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/never-mind-football-try-parliamentary.html - houndtang
23 Jun 12
I was given a pair of complementary tickets and went alomg not knowing anything about this play- except that it waw about politics. This was to the usual standards of The Old Vic. A Huge thumbs up to the acting, sets, costumes and lighting but (if thruth be known)we both found this to be very wordy and as a result I found it hard to keep continual focus and my mind started to wonder a little - Anthony B
