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Frayn charts the rise and fall of Brandt--the left-leaning Chancellor who made the first major steps toward reconciliation with communist East Germany--through the eyes of Gunter G??illaume, a trusted aide who turned out to be an East German spy. "When people asked me what I was writing about," Frayn told the New York Times, "I would say, 'German politics in the 1970s,' and their eyes would glaze over." Cute, but the anecdote doesn't have the right punch line. Despite the efforts of this estimable playwright (Noises Off, Copenhagen), the audience's eyes glaze over...
Frayn's technique is a fluid mix of re-enactment and narration, docudrama and memory play. Most of the story is told by G??illaume, a Teutonic Sammy Glick who worked his way into Brandt's confidence--and passed along everything he saw and heard to his East German contact, who converses with him from a corner of the stage for much of the play. We witness Brandt's political successes, the infighting among his Cabinet, his knack for galvanizing crowds and his weakness for women. But it's all surprisingly dry and flatfooted as drama: too much tell...
Part of the problem may be the American cast, headed by the stolid, uncharismatic James Naughton as Brandt and by Richard Thomas, too transparently fake and obsequious as G??illaume. But Frayn hasn't done his part to turn this political drama into an involving personal one. We never understand why Brandt, who scorns G??illaume at the outset, is won over by him, and thus we don't fully register the human tragedy of his betrayal. Even that treachery seems kind of piddly. Maybe the cold war is already too distant for us to appreciate why G??illaume...
...fact, having personally witnessed Ali G??s speech last year on that sweltering June day in Cambridge, I think we can literally say that “morality” or “not frightening parents and relatives in the audience” or “not saying the word ‘poonani’” can be safely thrown out the window...
...allowed Afghan fundamentalists to use Pakistan as a refuge from which to recruit fresh militants and launch cross-border ambushes against U.S. and Afghan troops. Some ex--Taliban fighters even allege that several colonels in Pakistan's security agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), are funding former Taliban protg??s through madrasahs, or religious schools, and mosques in border villages. "The ISI knows where the Taliban live," Mujahed says. "They could arrest us all in a day. But they don't bother...