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Die Frist. Eine Komödie.
German
- GenresGerman Literature
150 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
3 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
409 books1,028 followersFriedrich Dürrenmatt (1921 – 1990) was a Swiss author and dramatist.
Dürrenmatt was born in the Emmental (canton of Bern), the son of a Protestant pastor. His grandfather Ulrich Dürrenmatt was a conservative politician. The family moved to Bern in 1935. Dürrenmatt began to study philosophy and German language and literature at the University of Zurich in 1941, but moved to the University of Bern after one semester. In 1943 he decided to become an author and dramatist and dropped his academic career. In 1945-46, he wrote his first play, "It is written". On October 11 1946 he married actress Lotti Geissler. She died in 1983 and Dürrenmatt was married again to another actress, Charlotte Kerr, the following year.
He was a proponent of epic theater whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author gained fame largely due to his avant-garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire. One of his leading sentences was: "A story is not finished, until it has taken the worst turn". Dürrenmatt was a member of the Gruppe Olten.
Dürrenmatt was born in the Emmental (canton of Bern), the son of a Protestant pastor. His grandfather Ulrich Dürrenmatt was a conservative politician. The family moved to Bern in 1935. Dürrenmatt began to study philosophy and German language and literature at the University of Zurich in 1941, but moved to the University of Bern after one semester. In 1943 he decided to become an author and dramatist and dropped his academic career. In 1945-46, he wrote his first play, "It is written". On October 11 1946 he married actress Lotti Geissler. She died in 1983 and Dürrenmatt was married again to another actress, Charlotte Kerr, the following year.
He was a proponent of epic theater whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author gained fame largely due to his avant-garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire. One of his leading sentences was: "A story is not finished, until it has taken the worst turn". Dürrenmatt was a member of the Gruppe Olten.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 4, 2020
Die Frist (The Deadline) was Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s last and most obscure play. For readers who are new to or have had limited experience with his writing and plays, this is one to steer clear of. It’s for Dürrenmatt connoisseurs and junkies only. For them, the concluding essay, a ten page rambling reminiscence about his inspirations and process of writing that was published in a playbill of one of its few performances, might be the best part. If you pick this up, be sure to read the essay first.
This surreal farce is set in a “possible former throne room of a possible royal palace in the possible capital city in a possible country…in a possible present.” A tyrant—who we never see or meet—lies dying. In the first of this two part play, his prime minister plots to keep the tyrant alive, first through the court doctor, who is later revealed to be a former concentration camp doctor (echoes from the novel Der Verdacht ), and later through a Nobel Prize-holding doctor, who turns out to be one of the concentration camp’s doctor’s test subjects. All the while, a dizzying array of characters take the stage that test the viewer’s (reader’s) ability to understand what is going on. In the second part, the tyrant has died. The normally behind-the-scenes power machinations are now broadcast live over radio and television leading to a trademark, unpredictable Dürrenmatt conclusion.
In the playbill essay, Dürrenmatt writes that the idea for the play came to him while he was in a Bern hospital for an extended stay—in the same room that his mother-in-law died. At the same time, the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was dying a slow death while teams of doctors tried vainly to keep him alive. That, combined with his hospital experience, caused him to think about “the association between aspects of modern medicine and concentration camps: the tortures people were put through to let them die as late as possible struck me, in a diabolical way, identical with the way certain concentration camp doctors conducted experiments on humans to study the limits of how people could die.”
Another observation that struck me is how Dürrenmatt wanted his fascist tyrant to be a metaphor for the communist totalitarianism ideology of his day, because “fascism was an ideology of the past.” That was what he was thinking about as he wrote the most memorable line of the play: “I’m only dangerous to the regime as long as I run directly against it as a man in the name of humanity and not as some politician in the name of any random movement.” (Ich bin den Regime nur so lange gefährlich, als ich ihm als Mensch im Namen der Menschlichkeit entgegentrete und nicht als Politiker im Namen irgendeiner Richtung.) How might Dürrenmatt, the inveterate reviser, have rewritten this play if he were alive today?
This surreal farce is set in a “possible former throne room of a possible royal palace in the possible capital city in a possible country…in a possible present.” A tyrant—who we never see or meet—lies dying. In the first of this two part play, his prime minister plots to keep the tyrant alive, first through the court doctor, who is later revealed to be a former concentration camp doctor (echoes from the novel Der Verdacht ), and later through a Nobel Prize-holding doctor, who turns out to be one of the concentration camp’s doctor’s test subjects. All the while, a dizzying array of characters take the stage that test the viewer’s (reader’s) ability to understand what is going on. In the second part, the tyrant has died. The normally behind-the-scenes power machinations are now broadcast live over radio and television leading to a trademark, unpredictable Dürrenmatt conclusion.
In the playbill essay, Dürrenmatt writes that the idea for the play came to him while he was in a Bern hospital for an extended stay—in the same room that his mother-in-law died. At the same time, the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was dying a slow death while teams of doctors tried vainly to keep him alive. That, combined with his hospital experience, caused him to think about “the association between aspects of modern medicine and concentration camps: the tortures people were put through to let them die as late as possible struck me, in a diabolical way, identical with the way certain concentration camp doctors conducted experiments on humans to study the limits of how people could die.”
Another observation that struck me is how Dürrenmatt wanted his fascist tyrant to be a metaphor for the communist totalitarianism ideology of his day, because “fascism was an ideology of the past.” That was what he was thinking about as he wrote the most memorable line of the play: “I’m only dangerous to the regime as long as I run directly against it as a man in the name of humanity and not as some politician in the name of any random movement.” (Ich bin den Regime nur so lange gefährlich, als ich ihm als Mensch im Namen der Menschlichkeit entgegentrete und nicht als Politiker im Namen irgendeiner Richtung.) How might Dürrenmatt, the inveterate reviser, have rewritten this play if he were alive today?
January 10, 2025
Ich liebe Dürrenmatt, daher werden meine Rezensionen zu ihm wahrscheinlich immer gut ausfallen - so wie auch erneut diese hier.
Ein wunderbar gelungenes Buch, auch wenn es (von ihm selbst betitelt) als eines seiner schlechtesten Werke gilt und einige logische Fehler in Zeit und Raum aufweist - dennoch von einem tollen Witz Dürrenmatts geprägt und in seiner einzigartigen Erzählstimme geschrieben. Zwar kann man zwischen den Zeilen weniger lesen als sonst, das Stück ist durchaus politisch und dementsprechend kritisch und auch sonst gibt es vermutlich nicht allzu viel zu lachen, doch die Personen sind wieder ansprechend individuell und der Erzählstrang bricht nicht ab.
Ich kann (ehrlich gesprochen) zwar diesmal auch weniger aus dem Stück ziehen, doch eine Aussage bleibt präsent in meinem Kopf: das aufrechthalten eines Systems welches schon längst zusammengebrochen ist, das Scheinbild nach außen welches lediglich dazu dient die Norm und Ordnung zu halten und die Mut zu einem Umsturz zu unterdrücken. Dabei der Machtappart welcher dahinter steckt, die Fäden die gezogen werden, alles ist aktueller denn je und weißt auf ein fatales Gesellschaftsbild hin: die Dummheit der Menschen an alles zu glauben was ihnen gezeigt wird
Ein wunderbar gelungenes Buch, auch wenn es (von ihm selbst betitelt) als eines seiner schlechtesten Werke gilt und einige logische Fehler in Zeit und Raum aufweist - dennoch von einem tollen Witz Dürrenmatts geprägt und in seiner einzigartigen Erzählstimme geschrieben. Zwar kann man zwischen den Zeilen weniger lesen als sonst, das Stück ist durchaus politisch und dementsprechend kritisch und auch sonst gibt es vermutlich nicht allzu viel zu lachen, doch die Personen sind wieder ansprechend individuell und der Erzählstrang bricht nicht ab.
Ich kann (ehrlich gesprochen) zwar diesmal auch weniger aus dem Stück ziehen, doch eine Aussage bleibt präsent in meinem Kopf: das aufrechthalten eines Systems welches schon längst zusammengebrochen ist, das Scheinbild nach außen welches lediglich dazu dient die Norm und Ordnung zu halten und die Mut zu einem Umsturz zu unterdrücken. Dabei der Machtappart welcher dahinter steckt, die Fäden die gezogen werden, alles ist aktueller denn je und weißt auf ein fatales Gesellschaftsbild hin: die Dummheit der Menschen an alles zu glauben was ihnen gezeigt wird
September 22, 2018
Really liked this one and it was actually funny :)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews