About the work
Max Frisch's „Andorra" was premiered in Zurich in 1961 and is, after „Biedermann und die Brandstifter", Frisch's second great model play. Frisch developed the play over ten years from a prose sketch („Der andorranische Jude", 1946) and so created one of the most important works of post-war German-language literature on antisemitism and prejudice.
Plot
In the fictional small country of Andorra (NOT identical with the real Andorra — Frisch chose the name as a model space), the young Andri lives, taken in by the teacher Can as a „rescued" Jewish child from the hostile „Black" neighbouring state. Andri loves Barblin, Can's daughter — who is in truth his half-sister, since Andri is Can's illegitimate child from an affair with a „Black". Can has invented the lie to spare Andri moral shame. Yet in the course of the action Andri is more and more stigmatised as „the Jew" — the innkeeper, soldier, journeyman, priest, carpenter, doctor project their prejudices onto him, and Andri eventually adopts this assigned identity. When the „Blacks" invade Andorra, they organise a „Jew show" — all the inhabitants are inspected. Andri is identified as a Jew despite Can's belated revelation of the truth and is executed. Barblin is raped and her head shaved. In intercut „foreground" scenes the Andorrans deny their guilt.
Cultural significance
Andorra is Frisch's most-performed drama and required reading at German-speaking schools. After 1961 the play became a model for staging the Holocaust — although Frisch's model character (the play does not deal directly with the Holocaust but with the mechanism of prejudice) has been debated repeatedly. The „foreground" scenes, in which the Andorrans deny their guilt, are among the most refined dramaturgical structures of post-war theatre. Kurt Hirschfeld's premiere and Frank Castorf's productions shaped its impact.