‘Epilogue: Cigars, reports, stamp and pad, 2 red cushions, coal shovel, nail file, 2 bicycles, wig and parrot.’

Dear Mr Frisch!3 Schiess to Frisch, circa 1963. The English translation of this letter, presented here, is my own.

It will surely astonish you that a complete stranger should have the audacity to write to you from the dark part of the globe. And then he doesn’t even have the decency to be a Negro, but a Swiss living abroad.

However, the well-known story from your youth, of how you wrote to Max Reinhardt at the age of sixteen, has given me, an unknown theatre enthusiast, the courage to try things the other way around, and write to a famous author.

This must sound like a begging letter, like most letters from people you don’t know, though here this is the case only in an incidental way. Mainly I want to tell you about the effects of one of your plays on the population of this country, which openly practises racial segregation and consequently meets with hostility from the world. The play in question is not ‘ANDORRA’ (of which more later), but ‘BIEDERMANN UND DIE BRANDSTIFTER’.

In April last year, a student group performed your play in German here in Pretoria, under my direction. Its success in the German community was very revealing. The press spread an English critic’s interpretation of the play that it was a satire about the rise of Nazi rule in pre-war Germany. This provoked strong opposition from the majority of Germans living here, proving once again that the fiercest Nazis are those who stayed in the colonies, since they experienced nothing that could have exorcized their convictions. But its success with others was very satisfying.

Far more interesting, however, was the reaction to my staging of your play in Afrikaans in October last year. The descendants of the Boers, whose mother tongue is Afrikaans, are a peculiar people in a relatively young country. Today they are politically at the helm, but for a century they were the ‘underdog’ in the struggle for supremacy. There is a strict separation here even among the whites, between the ‘English South Africans’ and the ‘Afrikaners’. The state authorities make every effort to promote Afrikaans (a dialect related to Flemish, one might say). A lot of effort is also being made to build up an ‘independent culture’. In short, the Afrikaner possesses undoubted qualities and as individuals are inferior to no one. But the people overall suffer from feelings of inferiority that make them oversensitive in certain respects. The biggest curse on the Afrikaners, however, is the powerful, stubborn, fanatical, Calvinist church that keeps its lambs in an iron grip. A church in which racial segregation is considered a dogma. And the Afrikaner is generally very loyal to the church, raising his children in unbending faith with complete conviction. The church also has strong political power and doesn’t just regulate the moral life of its members. It also dictates their general mindset. Even the slightest deviation from the orthodox law of their forefathers is officially persecuted. Then there is their conviction that they are God’s chosen people, given the sacrosanct task of showing the world that they, alone, are right. This shows itself clearly in its policy of isolation. In many respects it is not so different from the most stubborn groups in our own homeland. On the whole, I don’t think I’m wrong when I describe the majority of this little nation as the most petty bourgeois [‘bieder’] of all petty bourgeois societies [‘Biedermänner-Gesellschaften’] in the world, though I don’t mean this in a wholly negative way.

Your play burst into this environment under the title ‘Die Brandstigters’ [‘The Arsonists’]. It was a completely new kind of theatre, because the public here is acquainted with little that isn’t naturalistic; they are also accustomed to ‘escapist theatre’. It is in itself a minor sensation for a play to deal with a real-life problem. But it was the epilogue [‘Nachspiel’], however, that really caused a stir. The intelligentsia (who are regrettably few in number) were enthusiastic, and it made many people stop and think. The modern Pharisees were horrified. But the house was bursting at the seams every evening and, to this day, three months after the performance, I’m still hearing of heated discussions. That has never happened before in this country, where conversation in average society dangerously resembles the spirit of the dialogue in Ionesco’s ‘The Bald Soprano’. But what was particularly astonishing is that, suddenly, the silent, shrugging, lychee-chewing young Afrikaners were transformed into serious discussion partners. For example, in an office where one of the actors works, religion was discussed for four solid hours on the day after the performance. This is a truly astonishing event!

After having seen this impact, I have come to the conclusion that it is a human duty to bring your plays to local theatre audiences. That is why I am busy with preparations for an English-language production of ‘ANDORRA’. Greater minds than me have praised you for this piece; I can only thank you for it. I have no greater wish than to be able to perform ‘ANDORRA’.

The whole world knows where South Africa stands on the racial issue. It is true that the politics here are very misunderstood in Europe and are also being misused as a kind of whitewash for other issues. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the principle on which this policy is based is wrong.

This is one of the reasons why it is so important to me to be able to perform ‘ANDORRA’ here: because those who have eyes will see what is meant.

One matter could throw a spanner in the works. I have received word from England that the English-language performance rights for ‘ANDORRA’ are being withheld in favour of a performance in New York. However, I was not definitively refused them. Instead, ‘your request was referred to the copyright holders’. I wrote back immediately to provide my reasons for asking for an exception to be made. And here comes the request for which I prepared you at the outset of this letter. Would you also be willing to put in a good word for us, since the author’s wishes cannot, after all, be overlooked?!

Dear Mr Frisch, I have tried to show you that we have idealistic reasons for wanting to stage ‘ANDORRA’ here. Because we are young and independent, we want to build up a lively theatre in a country where theatrical culture is still in its infancy. Maybe it will convince you if I say that my actual profession is that of a ‘quantity surveyor’, though I give all my free time to the theatre. I will take on the financial risk myself. My entire group, all in similar situations, is of the same opinion. It is absurd to assume that we could be considered as competition for New York. We will not be depriving anyone of an audience, but will most likely be creating one. After our success with ‘Biedermann’ in Pretoria in German and Afrikaans, an English-language production with professional actors is being staged in Johannesburg, and a further production in Afrikaans is also to be staged in the Cape. Matters will probably proceed in the same way with ‘ANDORRA’.

I hope that my request does not annoy you. In this case, my enthusiasm for the matter at hand has helped to overcome my natural shyness.

With best wishes and sincere thanks,

Yours

[Mario Schiess]