Dürrenmatt's Play Strindberg

DURRENMATT'S PLAY STRINDBERG "PLAY-QUICK MOVEMENT, ACTIVITY" PLAY AREA (in the sense of freedom ), play for amusement. (in the sense of pastime), sport, joke, game of chance, match, style of playing, way of acting, stageph.lY, drama." This definition, rather loosely composed of variously related terms, headed the programme notes of the latest play of Friedrich Diirrenmatt , at its first run in Basel, February-June, 1969. Although prepared by further explanatory notes and illustrations, the audience was surprised by a new dramatic experience, to which some critics took exception . It is only after an overview of Diirrenmatt's concept of "play" as shown in the corpus of his comedies, that one gains a better appreciation of what Play Strindberg aims to achieve. In various recent interviews, Diirrenmatt has reiterated and amplified his idea of "playing with the theater," a concept certainly not new, since he himself refers it back to Aristophanes, but still of interest today, when current dramatics are more concerned with psychology or ideology.! Through the development of his dramatic art, from It is Written (1947), to Play Strindberg, the author, within this general framework, has experimented with various forms of playing. These forms appear either thematically or structurally, or in combinations of idea and form. Playas a cruel test of faith, as a pastime, as disguise and deception, as revenge, as speculation and juggling for power, is seen respectively in The Blind Man (1948), Romulus the Great (1949), An Angel Comes to Babylon (1953), The Visit (1956), Frank V (1959), and The Physicists (1961). In these plays, the idea of play is generally treated thematically. Playing with anti-illusionistic staging, with shock effects, with free imagination, occurs in The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi (1952), An Angel Comes to Babylon, Hercules and the Augean .Stable (1962), and 1 Ernst Schumacher, "Interview mit Friedrich Diirrenmatt, Das Drama als Parabel und Stormanover," Deutsche Woche, 11, 3 (18 Jan. 1961), 13; Walter Jonas. "Friedrich Diirrenmatt und die 'abstrakte Biihne,' Ein Gespracb," Zurcher Woche, Nr. 26 (30. Juni 1961); Ludwig Mennel. "Diirrenmatt sagt: Der Stoff diktiert die Moral," Das Schonste, 7. 11 (Nov. 1961) 78-82; Horst Bienek, "Friedrich Diirrenmatt," in Werkstattgespriiche mit Schriftstellern (Miinchen, 1962) 99-112; Sauter, "Gesprach mit Friedrich Diirrenmatt," Sinn und Form, 18, 4 (1966), 121832 ; Friedrich Diirrenmatt, "Varlin schweigt," Die Weltwoche, 35, 1779 (15 Dez. 1967), 25-6. Diirrenmatt's first enunciation of this concept is in "Problems of the Theatre," in Four Plays by Friedrich Dilrrenmatt (New York, 1965), 7-39, first given as a lecture, 1954·55. 276 1970 DURRENMA'JT'S Play Strindberg 277 The Meteor (1966). These plays show the author playing 'with techniques . In It is Written and its later version, The Anabaptists (1967), free playing with the genre' called "Welttheater," and centerip.g the aCtor-figure (Bockelson) as protagonist and image of mankind are again another playful treatment of idea and form. King John (1968), emphasis.esthe theme of playas opportunism and as make-believe or role-playing, set structurally in the chessgame of politics. Not only is Diirrenmatt interested in experimenting with various fOims of ','play" in his writing, but his projection for the theater of the future entails an extensive revision of present procedure.' The new theater would be actor-centered, instead of director- or star-domi:" nated, and would run two parallel programmes: one of fewer finished productions; the other, of educational value, consisting of dramatic readings, monologues and comparative scenes from a wide sampling of plays, otherwise impossible to stage. This "Theater als Museum'" would require larger companies~ but would also appeal to a wider public.2 By making the repertory "actor-centred" one 'Would, in effect,' be transporting Diirrenmatt's concept of "pIa)''' into production policy. Play Strindberg logically descends from Diirrenmatt's long line of experiments, for the above definition applies' to this play more com~ pletely than to anyone' of the otllers. In being "actor-centred," the Basel premiere was also in tune with the author's projections for the "theater as museum." In an interview during rehearsals, Diirrenmatt described his playas "Anti-Strindberg." "I tried," he said, "tocreate a situation of play, and therefore, centered the 'entire conception around the actors.... It...