Brandenburger Tor

Swedish Ex-Socialist has now taken up dramaturgy. He sends these excerpts from a new play, and includes his own introduction.


The play begins with three characters:

• The King (someone from the West)
  
• The Socialist (an former employee of Stasi)
  
• A Prophet

The first act is at the Brandenburger Tor. The site is significant, since it was the spot that divided East and West. This may not be well-known to non-Europeans or younger people.

Readers can continue to write the play in the comments section.

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Brandenburger Tor
A Comedy?

By Swedish Ex-Socialist

	Act 1: Pariser Platz, Berlin
	The King, the Socialist and the Prophet sit on a bench beside Brandeburger Tor watching people passing by.
King:	I was in Berlin twenty years ago, and what strikes me most is how beautiful the women are today. It’s a great improvement.
Socialist:	Yes it’s remarkable. I guess the girls in West picked up the socialist diet and those in the East got the capitalist clothes and shoes.
King:	So now they’re lean and well-dressed.
Socialist:	Removing the Wall was great step forward for everyone.
King:	Is there any win-win situation with Multiculturalism, and especially Islam?
Prophet:	You don’t have to shave, you use a toothbrush, and not drinking is something you could benefit from.
King:	Yes, but we started to brush our teeth already , in fact in the ’50s, and it seems like the Muslims are adopting our drinking habits.
Prophet:	Yes, I know. That it’s a pity, but we will take care of that. We just need you to stop discriminating against us, and allow us to enforce our rules.
King :	Is that your sharia zones you’re talking about? That’s just a way to build new walls to divide people.
Socialist:	But we need to embrace new cultures to secure our welfare. The future is not to oppose religious freedom but to embrace changes and immigration to handle our demographic problem with an aging population.
King:	What about the unemployment? Having more people unemployed doesn’t save the welfare system. It just make problems even worse.
Socialist:	Have You seen the park? The Tiergarten? It’s so beautiful, let’s go for a walk there. I think the gardens are the best measurement of a city’s wealth. A garden reflects the beauty and health of the entire culture.
King:	Let’s go to a bookstore. I think the variety of books available in libraries and shops is the true measurement of the how healthy a society is.
Prophet:	I don’t care much for reading, but I like books with pictures.
	Act 2: The Bookstore
	The Socialist and the Prophet are looking in a book showing East German cars.
Socialist:	Look, there’s a Wartburg 353. I had one once, a great car.
King:	I’m sure those are still around. Would you like to trade in your Mercedes?

Socialist:	I just might do that, but I’m starting to like these four-stroke engines.
Prophet:	Where’s the porn?
King:	(to the Prophet) They’ve got lots of magazines on first floor.
	(Prophet walks away)
King:	I haven’t found any books by Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Brigitte Gabriel or Bat Ye’or.
Socialist:	There’s not much demand for foreign books here. We prefer books in the German language.
King:	But you can translate. You translated a lot of them to German when you worked for Stasi, and you wrote books about World War 2 and the DDR. I don’t think it’s a good idea to apply censorship just by not translating new books. Do you?
Socialist:	I could translate but I think its more important to write about our history so that we don’t repeat it.
King:	To remember the past is a convenient way to ignore the present.
Socialist:	Lets grab something to eat.
King:	Shall we have some potato soup, the socialist diet?
Socialist :	Don’t push it.
	(They go to the first floor where the Prophet is browsing the erotic magazines)
Socialist :	Look at this filth, so denigrating of women!
Prophet :	Yes, and the West is so greedy, they have wrapped the magazines in sealed bags so you have to buy them before you can look.
Socialist:	Will you join us for lunch?
Prophet:	Where?
King:	How about Gates of Vienna?
Prophet:	Never heard of it, is it halal?
King:	I’m sure there’s something halal in the comments section.
	[…]

Previous posts by Swedish Ex-Socialist:

2012		Jan		28		When is a Swede not a Swede?
		Feb		2		Socialists on Ice