|
West German Politics in the 1970s doesn't seem a very likely subject for a play. But then neither did a conversation about quantum mechanics and nuclear fission between two dead scientists. Just as he did in Copenhagen, Michal Frayn has scraped through the dry dust of history to reach a hotbed of dramatic power play in his newest success, Democracy.
Centered around left-wing German Chancellor Willy Brandt, Democracy charts his rise and subsequent fall, after his personal assistant is revealed to be leading an explosive double life.
Currents spoke to director Michael Blakemore and actor Philip Quast who will appear in the role of Willy Brandt.
PHILIP QUAST INTERVIEW:
Laura Scrivano: What was it about Democracy that made you want to be part of this production?
Philip Quast: I have always admired Michael Frayn. I had seen Copenhagen and I loved the way it was directed because of the rhythm and the pace that Michael Blakemore seems to engender in his plays. Then I saw Democracy at the National and when the offer came up, I jumped at it. The combination of the two Michaels working together is something that you can't pass up as an actor. One of the other reasons is that my wife and I went to Berlin when the wall was up and the Cold War was at its height. I remember an experience we had when we went over to see the Berliner Ensemble one night. The whole difficulty of getting into Berlin, them searching you and the dogs - we went through a corridor in Berlin through to East Germany. We had that experience of the machine guns, the racing at night to get back to Checkpoint Charlie. We went right into East Berlin, to areas that had never been repaired from the bombing of the Second Word War and people were burning their furniture because it was so cold the year we were there.
Then when I came over to the West End to do Les Misérables in '89 the wall started coming down. So I remember the events surrounding Willy Brandt clearly.
LS: As an actor, what are the challenges in playing Willy Brandt?
PQ: The first challenge technically is pace, just the sheer speed and the dexterity of thought - having enough knowledge to know what you are talking about and really understanding the politics. What I am looking forward to is trying to find the balance between the play being about middle aged melancholia and balancing that with the history and the politics. Brandt is a person who is neurotic, manic-depressive, a hypochondriac and yet had this manner of being able to lead through charisma. He knew exactly what he was doing, he was a supreme politician.
LS: Given Willy Brandt was a real person what kind of research are you doing for the part?
PQ: I am reading all the biographies, grabbing anything I can. I don't want to try and do an impersonation because it is not about that. Michael Frayn is very clear that the play is set in a world where there is a lot of presumption about what happened. However, some of the events are real so I just look for a few key moments where you may trigger the audience's memory in terms of newsreel footage of what actually happened.
LS: The play depends on the relationship between Brandt and his shadow Günter Guillaume. What kind of challenges does that present?
PQ: Their relationship is rather like the Othello/Iago relationship where one is doing something and the other doesn't suspect. The hardest thing about the play is why it all happened and went on for so long without anyone suspecting. The way the play is shaped the relationship develops beautifully between the two of them and it is a matter for me to find the rhythm of that development. How it goes from ambivalence on Willy Brandt's part to gradually the two of them becoming friends and almost alter egos. Until, at the end when they are talking about each other and they haven't seen each other it is rather sad.
LS: What do you hope audiences will get out of the production?
PQ: Germany is a country that tends to be disparaged here in Europe. There is a lot of racial stereotyping going on by the British of the other European countries. I feel that there is a big message in the play. The way things are politically at the moment we should really look at what Germany has achieved. They are quite vigilant as a country about the rise in the right. We tend to be self-congratulatory in Australia and Europe that Germany's fate didn't happen to us. The rise in the right in all our countries and especially the evangelical right is quite shocking. We have a smugness that it could never happen here. I feel what Germany has managed to achieve is very important. That's something that we can learn from them. In Australia the Prime Minister is able to lie, influence an entire election and nobody says anything. The play is quite amazing in that way because Germany has achieved so much.
MICHAEL BLAKEMORE INTERVIEW:
LS: What attracted you to Democracy?
Michael Blakemore: My initial attraction to Democracy was because Michael Frayn had written it. I have been a collaborator of his over many productions and anything new that he writes I am immediately interested in. It was quite difficult to read because it is about West German politics and although I knew the vague outline of the Willy Brandt story, I didn't know any of the subsidiary characters of what West German politics was like. But when I got to the end I realised it was a remarkable play. It is about a very interesting theme - about the practicality of the democratic process and about a remarkable man and a very unique time in history. In many ways I think it is one of the best plays about politics that has been written.
LS: Your collaboration with Michael Frayn is up to about eight plays now I believe. What kind of process do the two of you undertake?
MB: I have lost count but I think we have done eight plays and a Chekhov translation together. We have evolved a process over time. It consists of me reading the play and then Michael and I go through it very carefully and spend a lot of time discussing it, in which I try and get inside his head. Once I have really seen the play from his point of view as well as my own, then I feel free to add elements of production that maybe he hadn't thought of. So we begin by having long, long chats about it in which I ask him to read his play to me. As he is reading it allows me to do the thinking.
LS: Events in Democracy are often narrated not demonstrated - how did you avoid the play becoming a history lecture?
MB: When you first read Copenhagen it reads a bit like a science lecture and with Democracy it is like a manual about political process. But in fact it is much better written than that, underneath all that apparent subject there are human emotions and human ambitions writhing. Once you start to work on it, it doesn't seem nearly as cerebral as it does on the page. Michael's techniques in both Copenhagen and Democracy owe something to cinema as he does not labour himself with a lot of naturalism. He is able to move from scene to scene with remarkable speed and he never stays with any one scene a word longer than is necessary for the drama to proceed. So it is extraordinarily dense but also rather exciting because there is nothing superfluous. One of my problems as a director is to make sure the show moves. That between each scene there is a space no bigger than a cut in a film. So you have to find a machine to do the play in, that allows it to proceed without interruption.
LS: What do you hope to achieve with the Australian production?
MB: I am looking forward to arriving in Australia for the production. I recently wrote a book called Arguments with England which is about when I was an actor and leaving Australia, going to England into expatriation and then a visit back to Australia I made 15 years later, so returning to my homeland is always interesting. When I re-do a production with new actors, I don't want a carbon copy of what I have already done but I begin by offering what I know works and then as the rehearsals proceed I hope that the actors will take it in directions that are entirely their own. For the STC, the set will be the same, a lot of the moves will be the same but we have got different people lighting it and doing the sound design. We have got a very good company of actors with Philip Quast playing Willy Brandt and John Gaden in a key role as well. So that will all come together to make a unique production.
(*) Currents is the STC Subscriber Magazine
