Biedermann und die Brandstifter (The Fire Raisers)
A morality play without a moral by Max FrischA morality play without a moral by Max Frisch
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In the city where Gottlieb Biedermann runs his hair tonic factory there has been a series of arson attacks. One day »friendly« strangers appear at the businessman’s door and introduce themselves as the pedlar Schmitz and salesman Eisenring. Biedermann invites them in, offers them a drink and is ultimately even willing to hand them matches. Max Frisch’s »morality play without a moral« is a political parable that derives its critical power not from unmasking lies but from the disturbing insight that the truth itself may have no consequences if nobody is willing to listen to it.
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In the city where Gottlieb Biedermann runs his hair tonic factory there has been a series of arson attacks. One day »friendly« strangers appear at the wealthy businessman’s door and introduce themselves as the pedlar Schmitz and salesman Eisenring. Biedermann invites them in, offers them a drink and is ultimately even willing to hand them matches when they ask for them. Nevertheless, by then he should clearly know the situation he has reached – as the two men make little secret of their plan. They lug barrels of petrol up into the attic, set out fuses and detonators and when Biedermann asks about these, they answer with disarming openness. »Humour is the third best disguise. The second best: sentimentality. But the best and safest disguise is still the bare and naked truth. Nobody believes that,« Eisenring explains almost off-handedly – and he is right. Biedermann refuses to believe what he is seeing because believing it would force him to do something.
Max Frisch’s »morality play without a moral« is a political parable that derives its critical power not from unmasking lies but from the disturbing insight that the truth itself may have no consequences if nobody is willing to listen to it. The play presents Biedermann not as a victim, but as someone who bears a share of the responsibility, who turns a blind eye to danger out of convenience, cowardice and self-interest. He appeases them, offers them roast goose, calls the criminals by their first names – he would rather make himself an accomplice than risk his quiet, middle class life. Whoever looks the other way facilitates harm. And this is the mechanism that makes the parable so disturbingly topical: it is less about unscrupulous arsonists than about those who invite them into their homes.
Max Frisch’s most performed play, written in 1958, and whose title character can be traced back to a serial in the Munich-based satirical magazine »Fliegende Blätter«, is directed by Miloš Lolić, whose most recent production at the Residenztheater was »The Doctor«.
