Directed by Michael Frayn’s longtime collaborator Michael Blakemore,

premiered at the Royal National Theatre’s Cottesloe venue on 9 September 2003, running until 30 December, then moving to the Lyttelton on 13 February 2004, where it closed on 30 March. On 20 April 2004, the production transferred to the Wyndham Theatre, where it ran until 9 October. That same year, it opened on Broadway on 18 November at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, running until 17 April 2005.

The London production won the Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle, and South Bank Awards for Best Play, and in America it was nominated for both the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award as Best Play. Reviewing the play for The Guardian, Michael Billington called it “an elegant fiction based on documented fact”, as

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Citation: Blansfield, Karen. "Democracy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 February 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=25335, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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