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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 February 2022
It is an unfortunate fact that the two leading German-speaking dramatists of the present day are all but unknown in the United States. Friedrich Duerrenmatt is known only through The Visit, the success of which has been due mainly to its sensationalism rather than to its more solid dramatic and philosophical qualities; and Max Frisch is not known at all. None of Frisch's plays has been produced in the United States. So far, only one, The Chinese Wall, has appeared in translation. Yet in his best plays (he is far more uneven in quality than Duerrenmatt), Frisch is every bit the equal of his more famous countryman. In this paper I would like to examine the plays of both these Swiss dramatists with a view to showing the significance of their themes and placing them in their proper position in the mainstream of the modern drama.
* “ … a man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time that he'll give him sixpence. But the second time it'll be only a threepenny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he'll hand him over cold-bloodedly to the police.” (Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera, Act I, Sc. 1.)