About the work
Dürrenmatt first wrote the material in 1955 as a radio play commissioned by Bayerischer Rundfunk; it was first broadcast on 17 January 1956 by NDR Hamburg, directed by Gustav Burmester. The same year he published a prose version under the same title. He only adapted it for the stage in 1979, directing the comedy's premiere himself on 13 September 1979 in Wilhelmsbad near Hanau.
Plot
Traveling salesman Alfredo Traps suffers a breakdown with his car and seeks lodging for the night in a village. A retired judge takes him in on one condition: the table of former lawyers stages a mock trial for entertainment, with Traps as the accused. The more smugly he recounts his career, the more the prosecutor and defence counsel expose the guilt hidden within it, until in the stage version Traps ultimately carries out the verdict on himself.
Cultural significance
The radio play won the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden and remains one of Dürrenmatt's most widely read texts; the stage version adopted the prose story's tragic ending rather than the more open one used in the radio and television versions.