PhilPaine.com

This is the fourth play I’ve read this month by the Swiss writer Dür­ren­matt. All of them are clever and enter­tain­ing. The influ­ence of both Piran­dello and Thorn­ton Wilder are obvi­ous. I read the first just because it pur­ported to be about the obscure, last Roman emper­or in the West, Romu­lus Augus­tus. Well, the play is about as accu­rate his­tor­i­cally as the Flint­stones is a pic­ture of ear­ly hominids, but it is lots of fun. Dürrenmatt’s wit sur­vives trans­la­tion from Ger­man. The oth­er plays are equal­ly bizarre and enter­tain­ing. The Physcists involves two pos­si­ble mur­der­ers who respec­tively think they are New­ton and Ein­stein, and a sin­is­ter char­ac­ter named Möbius who may have a uni­fied field theory.