Biography
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990), born in Konolfingen in the Emmental region of Switzerland, is the most internationally important Swiss dramatist of the twentieth century and a defining voice of German-language theatre after 1945. His tragic comedies Der Besuch der alten Dame (1956) and Die Physiker (1962) belong to the most frequently performed German-language plays worldwide and established the grotesque as Dürrenmatt's signature dramatic mode—what he called the only honest form for a modern world no longer capable of pure tragedy. Other major works include Romulus der Große, Der Meteor, Die Wiedertäufer, and the detective novels Der Richter und sein Henker and Das Versprechen. Dürrenmatt wrote essays, radio plays, and visual art throughout his life. He received the Georg Büchner Prize in 1986 and died in Neuchâtel in 1990. His work combines uncompromising moral seriousness with cosmic comedy in ways that remain without exact parallel.
On Stagelog
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