A Patriot for Me is a 1965 play by the English playwright John Osborne, based on the true story of Alfred Redl.
The controversial refusal of a performance licence by the Lord Chamberlain's Office played a role in the passage of the Theatres Act 1968.
[1] 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.
George Devine, founder of the English Stage Company, was performing in this play when he died of a heart attack.
[6] The 1985 film Colonel Redl states in its credits that Osborne's play "inspired" it,[7] and the film-makers paid him a £20,000 "courtesy fee".