About the work
Dürrenmatt completed the comedy in 1966. It premiered on 20 January 1966 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, directed by Leopold Lindtberg, with Leonard Steckel in the lead role of Wolfgang Schwitter.
Plot
Terminally ill Nobel Prize-winning writer Wolfgang Schwitter returns to the studio of his youth because he finally wants to die. He is declared clinically dead twice yet keeps on living, with fatal consequences for the people around him, who perish one after another over the course of the play.
Cultural significance
The premiere became the biggest Zurich stage success of the 1965/66 season; as early as 24 October 1967, Swiss television broadcast a recording of the production.