About the work
Dürrenmatt wrote the two-part comedy around 1950. It was only in late 1951 that set designer Teo Otto convinced the Intendant of the Munich Kammerspiele, Hans Schweikart, of the play's merits; it premiered on 26 March 1952 under Schweikart's own direction.
Plot
Prosecutor Florestan Mississippi convicts the widow Anastasia of poisoning her husband and, having poisoned his own first wife, proposes to her: together they intend to enforce Mosaic law against a corrupt society. Around them circle Anastasia's childhood sweetheart, the alcoholic tropical doctor Count Übelohe-Zabernsee, embodying Christian love, and the world revolutionary Saint-Claude, who preaches absolute equality; in the end Mississippi and Anastasia poison each other.
Cultural significance
The Munich premiere became Dürrenmatt's first major stage success and brought him recognition beyond Switzerland; the four main characters are read as allegorical positions that all fail within postwar society.