Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophical crime novels, and macabre satire. Dürrenmatt was a member of the Gruppe Olten, a group of left-wing Swiss writers who convened regularly at a restaurant in the town Olten.
Early life
Dürrenmatt was born in Konolfingen, 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 studies in philosophy, German philology and German literature at the University of Zürich in 1941, but moved to the University of Bern after one semester where he also studied natural science. 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 11 October 1946, he married the actress Lotti Geissler. She died on 16 January 1983. Dürrenmatt married another actress, Charlotte Kerr, in 1984. Dürrenmatt also enjoyed painting. Some of his own works and his drawings were exhibited in Neuchâtel in 1976 and 1985, as well as in Zürich in 1978.
Dramatic works
Like Bertolt Brecht, Dürrenmatt explored the dramatic possibilities of epic theatre. Next to Brecht, he has been called its "most original theorist". When he was 26, his first play, It Is Written, premiered to great controversy. The story of the play revolves around a battle between a sensation-craving cynic and a religious fanatic who takes scripture literally, all of this taking place while the city they live in is under siege. The play's opening night in April 1947, caused fights and protests in the audience. Between 1948 and 1949, Dürrenmatt wrote several segments and sketches for the anti-NaziCabaret Cornichon in Zürich; among these, the single-act grotesqueshort playDer Gerettete. His first major success was the play Romulus the Great. Set in the year A.D. 476, the play explores the last days of the Roman Empire, presided over, and brought about by its last emperor, Romulus. The Visit is a grotesque fusion of comedy and tragedy about a wealthy woman who offers the people of her hometown a fortune if they will execute the man who jilted her years earlier. The satirical drama The Physicists, which deals with issues concerning science and its responsibility for dramatic and dangerous changes to the world, has also been presented in translation. Radio plays published in English include Hercules in the Augean Stables, Incident at Twilight and The Mission of the Vega. The two late works Labyrinth and Turmbau zu Babel are a collection of unfinished ideas, stories, and philosophical thoughts.
It Happened in Broad Daylight, with a TV version made in 1997
The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi
The Visit
Once a Greek
Der Meteor
Play Strindberg, based on Strindberg's The Dance of Death
Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe , based on A Dangerous Game
Последнее дело комиссара Берлаха
La più bella serata della mia vita
Авария
End of the Game, based on The Judge and His Hangman, and in which Dürrenmatt himself appears in two scenes
The Deadly Game based on A Dangerous Game
Cumartesi Cumartesi
Физики
Визит дамы
Szürkület based on the Es geschah am hellichten Tag movie script
Hyènes, adaptation of The Visit by the Senegalese moviemaker Djibril Diop Mambéty
Jesienny wieczór
Justiz
The Pledge, based on the novelDas Versprechen, which is in turn based on the Es geschah am hellichten Tag movie script
Male Nilluvavarege Kannada movie is based on A Dangerous Game
Adaptations
His novel, A Dangerous Game was adapted into a Marathi play, Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe by Indian playwright Vijay Tendulkar in 1967. The play has since then been performed in various Indian languages, and made into a film by the same name by Satyadev Dubey. His play The Visit has been adapted and Indianised into a play called Miss.Meena by Chennai-based theatre group 'perch'. The Visit has also been adapted as a musical by Kander and Ebb.