ACTION

Villa Schmalfeld in Grunewald, campaign office, Freddy’s place.
Berlin is in a state of absolute political upheaval: the decisive election is just around the corner. The ambitious Senator for Urban Development, Falk Schmalfeld, has his sights set on the stars and wants to claim the capital’s highest office – he wants to become Governing Mayor. Backed by his relentless and strategically cold-blooded campaign manager, Sina Willig, he is pulling out all the stops in the final sprint. His face is emblazoned on huge election posters all over the city, accompanied by the supposedly brilliant slogan: ‘Falk’s giving it his all!’. Yet behind this perfectly staged facade, the foundations are crumbling spectacularly. Whilst Falk insists to the microphones that he is passionate about the citizens’ concerns, in truth, behind the city’s facades, he sees one thing above all else: lucrative building plots.
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Whilst the senator is desperately trying to memorise his closing speech – vital for his political survival – his private life is plunged into utter chaos. His wife Konstanze, a headstrong and resolute painter, has finally had enough of the self-obsessed ‘empty talker’ by her side. Completely out of the blue, she confronts him with the news of a divorce – and this, of all times, right in the thick of the run-up to election day.
As if that weren’t enough: on Friday evening, just before the election, Konstanze is planning the opening of her new, highly erotic art exhibition with the telling title ‘Desire at Twilight’. The twist? The racy pictures are to be displayed, of all places, in the VIP lounge of the Olympic Stadium. For the Senator, this is an absolute nightmare scenario, because he knows full well that the Berlin press will pounce on this supposed scandal like a pack of hungry wolves and tear his campaign to shreds.
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At the same time, the political front lines are beginning to crumble. The latest projections show that Falk’s fiercest rival, Bodo von Stelzer, is catching up at breakneck speed. Campaign manager Sina makes it unmistakably clear to him that she will only remain by his side in the event of a victory. Falk’s nerves are on edge; plagued by extremely high blood pressure, he tries to numb himself with a dangerous mix of pills and whisky.
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The accident and the big family secret Amidst this escalating war of nerves, the inconceivable happens: Falk flees to the bathroom of his campaign office, slips on the soap from a freshly smashed Chinese soap dish and falls heavily on his head. As Sina leads him out of the bathroom, completely dazed, the full extent of the disaster becomes clear: the senator has lost his memory. Worse still: he has become unable to form normal sentences and instead speaks only in bizarre, childish rhymes. He knows neither who he is nor what he is actually supposed to be doing in the campaign office.
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The election is just round the corner, the press is waiting for the leading candidate, and the real Senator finds himself mentally in absolute no-man’s-land. In this hopeless situation, those involved turn to Falk’s best-kept secret – a side of his life he has concealed even from his own wife and rigorously omitted from all his CVs: he has an identical twin brother.
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This brother is called Freddy Schmalfeld, goes by the stage name Freddy van Borst, and is the exact opposite of the Senator. Whilst Falk resides in the Grunewald in his fine suits, the anarchist, perpetually stoned underground actor is vegetating in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood of SO36. The brothers have hated each other with a deep-seated loathing since their youth. But now, in a desperate cloak-and-dagger operation, Freddy is to play the role of his life: He is to impersonate the smooth-talking Senator, deceive the voters and save his brother’s political career.
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Can a Kreuzberg anarchist transform himself into a leading conservative politician within a matter of hours and survive the press’s predatory instincts? Will Konstanze see through the charade, or will she seize the opportunity to pursue her own plans? And what happens when the real Senator suddenly comes round?
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Editor’s notes:
Fred Apke’s *The Double Senator* is a frenetic, bittersweet and extremely fast-paced comedy. With plenty of wit and razor-sharp satire, it takes a look behind the moral scenes of modern politics.