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Frisch Three Plays Max Frisch

Frisch Three Plays By Max Frisch

Frisch Three Plays by Max Frisch


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Condition - Very Good
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Summary

This volume contains three of Max Frisch's plays in which he charts the clash between the individual and society. Beyond the deliberately grotesque situation, an important ingredient of each play is language.

Frisch Three Plays Summary

Frisch Three Plays: Fire Raisers; Andorra; Triptych by Max Frisch

Three contentious and enduring plays about the clash of the individual and society Fire Raisers (1958) tells the tale of a respectable bourgeois whose house is one day visited by three strangers. It is successful on every level; the story is as gripping as an adventure story; each line is fraught with several meanings: as an allegory it is unique (Edna O'Brien); Andorra is based on the author's own experience of anti-semitism in Switzerland and is about Andri, a young man who is believed to be a Jew and who is persecuted by his community as a result; Triptych is a portrait of a writer grappling with his own mortality. The flexible and contemporary translations by Michael Bullock (The Fire Raisers, Andorra) and Geoffrey Skelton (Triptych) are here complemented by an introduction by Peter Loeffler.

About Max Frisch

Max Frisch (1911-1991) was a playwright and novelist who, together with his Swiss compatriot Durrenmatt, is considered one of the most important postwar playwrights writing in German. Frisch originally studied philology and art at university, before abandoning his studies to become a journalist. After serving in the Swiss army during the Second World War, he took up architecture and pursued this profession until the 1950s, when he became a full-time writer. Frisch had written his first play at the age of 16, but having rejected his early work, it was not until 1944 that he returned to writing plays, with Santa Cruz. His second play, Now They Are Singing Again (1945), took its inspiration from Brecht, dealing as it does with the moral responsibility for war. This Brechtian theme was continued in his next two plays, The Chinese Wall (1946) and When the War Was Over (1949). With the romantic comedy Don Juan, or the Love of Geometry (1953) Frisch offers a new interpretation of the mythical character of the Great Lover. As a result of his increasing disenchantment with what he considered Swiss complacency in the face of mounting totalitarianism and fascism, Frisch wrote two of his most important plays. Biedermann und die Brandstifter (The Fire-raisers, written in 1958 as a radio play), satirizes the moral lethargy of the self-satisfied middle classes. This powerful play was seen in London at the Royal Court Theatre in 1961, and in New York (as The Firebugs) in 1963. It was closely followed by Andorra (1961), his most disturbing and controversial play, in which Frisch exposed and explored antisemitism. Frisch's blending of fantasy with brutal reality owes much to the work of Brecht and Thornton Wilder, both of whom influenced the playwright in his early years. His later plays, like Biography (1968) and Triptych (1979), continue to use the device of the modern morality play as a means of exploring the place of humanity in a difficult world.

Table of Contents

Fire Raisers; Andorra; Triptych

Additional information

GOR001502448
9780413665607
0413665607
Frisch Three Plays: Fire Raisers; Andorra; Triptych by Max Frisch
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
19920406
356
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

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