the play depicts redl, a homosexual in the austro-hungarian intelligence service in the 1890s, as he is blackmailed by the russians into a series of treasonous betrayals. its dramatic climax, and the scene that most excited the censor, is the drag ball, in which members of the upper echelons of viennese society appear in drag. mary mccarthy, the american novelist, wrote in "the observer" that the play's "chief merit is to provide work for a number of homosexual actors, or normal actors who can pass as homosexual". "a patriot for me" remains rarely performed because of the large cast required.