Friedrich Dürrenmatt by Armin Arnold (review)

1970 BOOK REVIEWS 343 Heidsieck'sdefinition of the tragi-comic, but he may well appreciate the author's evaluation of Frisch. Dr. Heidsieck brings 011t well the wide divergence in character and technique between the two Swiss dramatists and gives a revealing ac· count of Frisch's dependence on Brecht. Dr. Heidsieck~s book was a long time going· to press. Had the author been able to consider Diirrenmatt's more recent comments on Die Physiker (Theater Beutel Heft 9, September 1968), he might have revised his opinion of the play. Die Physikerfits into the grotesque scheme but should not be regarded as a political drama, and if Dr. Heidsieck cares to examine Diirrenmatt's latest works, which are definitely political in content, he may find that the grotesque art has deteriorated. FRIEDRlqB DVRRENMATT, by Armin Arnold, Kopfe des XX Jahrhunderts, Vol. 57, Colloquium Verlag, Berlin" 1969, 96 pp. Price DM 5,80. In this very useful series, "Personalities of the XX Century," modem drama is well represented with Camus,Sartre, Shaw, Brecht, Hauptmann, Grass, Frisch and Borchert. Each little volume is meant to introduce the uninitiated to the man, his life and his work. The reader of this volume may disagree with the priorities, believing that less space should have been devoted to prose-works and more to Diirrenmatt's very significant contribution to dramatic theory. In other respects the book is well planned, the progression from novel to drama carefully delineated, the relation between the two perspicuously observed. Quite obviously Professor Arnold enjoys reading Diirrenmatt and has a profound knowledge of secondary literature. One wonders, however, whether his approach is entirely suited to a man who writes mainly for the theatre and whose contempt for "literary drama" is well known. Does Arnold, in fact, fully appreciate Diirrenmatt's art? On page 83, for instance, he remarks, in a tone of surprise, that Diirrenmatt "seems ... to have become a completely different man:' Indeed he has, f0r it was precisely at this stage, after the production of Der BUnde} that the Diirrenmatt theatre, as we know it today, was born, when the dramatist stopped looking for ideas to clothe in flesh and started making a hall of mirrors produce the ideas for him, playing cat-and-mouse with audience, reader and critic alike. Tracing themes through Diirrenmatt's work is like finding one's way through a maze-one advances in circles, which is precisely what Arnold does in his search for Diirrenmatt's cruel god. (The word. appears on 24 pages.) If God has a sig. nificance in the plays, then it is only as one of many theatrical devices used to expose the stupidity of men and should not command undue attention. Also out of place in a work of this type are parallels-interesting though they be-between Der Besuch der alten Dame and Mark Twain's The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburgh (pp. 44-46). The reader will be surprised at the superficiality of some of the author's ob· servations; the discussion of Romulus der Grosse, for instance, is hardly more than a rehash of the plot; and eyebrows will be railed at certain conclusions. Thus the teacher in Der Besuch der alten Dame is called "the only good person in Durrenmatt 's work" (p. 45). In fact, though aware of his weaknesses, he is the prime propagator of hollow principles which render his moral collapse all the more despicable. Comparing Die Wiedertiiufer with the early version, Es steht geschrieben} Arnold carefully notes the changes that have been made, observes, correctly, that Bockelson has been turned into an actor and artist-failure resembling Hitler, and yet he 344 MODERN DRAMA December claims (p. 29) that the play "contains no new message:' Surely the message-if we insist on one-is found in this actor-politician who misuses the theatre for political ends? Why the concluding lines should be termed "vague (or absurd)" (p. 28) is also difficult to conceive. Though it is to Arnold's credit that he was able to include a discussion of Dur· renmatl's latest plays, which have a definite affinity with the Theatre of the Ab· surd. this aspect should not...