The scene of German Chancellor Willy Brandt on his knees apologizing at the Warsaw Ghetto memorial, found in The Apologist (see below), also occurs in Michael Frayn's play Democracy . We saw the show not long ago at the Wyndham Theatre in London, where it moved from the National. It was impressive that a drama featuring a half dozen middle-aged German politicians, with grey hair and grey suits, could still pack in a crowd. It was a very serious, thought-provoking evening, a meditation on the nature of democracy and its discontents. The plot centers on the spy scandal that brought down Willy Brandt's government. His most trusted personal assistant, a man by the name of Guillaume, was revealed to be working for the Stasi. So ended Brandt's attempts at better relations with East Germany and the Soviet bloc.
The play was a German version of "Yes, Minister," without all the jokes. Brandt's best political "friends," in the end, are happy to see him go, and take plum political jobs for themselves. Especially interesting is the portrayal of Helmut Schmidt, as the Chancellor-to-be.
Perhaps the play will come to America sometime. It might be good to see somewhere like the Kennedy Center, for example.
Also, discussion of Frayn's "Democracy" might provoke some discussion about whether those who claimed there were "Reds under the bed" might not have been paranoid after all, in certain cases at least, just realistic...
