‘Slamming of Door.’
2 ‘Andorra schedule of sounds and music’.Andorra was Schiess and the Volksteater’s third Swiss play presented in Afrikaans. Following the success of
Die Brandstigters in 1962
, they had staged Dürrenmatt’s hugely successful new play,
Die Physiker, translated by T. C. Nel as
Die Fisici and staged from 5 to 12 October 1963 in the Little Theatre in Pretoria.
3 The cast for Die Fisici consisted of Margaret Schiess, Lynette van Niekerk, Henry Neethling, Etienne Pienaar, Schalk Liebenberg, Karl Jordaan, Johann Theron, Wilma Stockenström, Arthur Stead, Marie Hendrine, Fanie van der Nest, Nico Dekker, Arthur Stead, Steven Neethling, Louis van Niekerk, Emsie Botha, André Beaumont, Nico van der Nest, and Daan Blignaut. Programme for Die Fisici at the Little Theatre, Pretoria, 5–12 October 1963, Volksteatervereniging, private collection. A satirical play set in a mental hospital, Die Fisici centres on a physicist who feigns insanity out of fear of how humanity might use his discoveries, two rival Cold War spies – one from the East and one from the West – posing as patients to steal his work, and a supposedly ‘mad’ psychiatrist who has already done so. Pretoria welcomed Dürrenmatt’s exploration of the conflict between science and humanity in a post-nuclear-bomb world, with critics praising both the Volksteater and Schiess for bringing the play to South Africa.
Nel’s translation has not survived. While a textual comparison with Dürrenmatt’s text is not possible, what can be said about it is telling: it was virtually invisible. Newspaper reports made no mention of Nel, treating the piece as simply Dürrenmatt. Reviewers instead highlighted Schiess’s connection to Dürrenmatt, one critic noting that the production showed ‘in all its details how well he understands the playwright and what he is saying’.
4 P. A. K., ‘Mammon and the mass murderers’, Pretoria News, 7 October 1963; see also L. B. O., ‘Volksteater slaag met moeilike stuk’, Die Transvaler, 8 October 1963; see also ‘Veeleisende rolle in ‘Die Fisici’ sterk gevul’, Die Vaderland, 9 October 1963. In the small world of the Transvaal, Schiess was even mistakenly described as a personal friend of Dürrenmatt’s.
5 ‘’n persoonlike vriend van Dürrenmatt’. Chris Barnard, ‘Dürrenmatt-drama opgevoer in Pretoria’, Dagbreek en Sondagnuus, 22 September 1963.Following the Johannesburg Civic’s Afrikaans production of
Der Besuch der alten Dame, and with translations of
Das Versprechen and
Die Panne in circulation, Dürrenmatt was fast becoming a prominent figure in Afrikaner literary circles. One critic even observed that – with the exception of Heinz Konsalik, who had over a hundred of his novels translated into Afrikaans – few other living European writers could ‘brag’ about attracting as much ‘Afrikaans attention’ as Dürrenmatt.
6 ‘Met die uitsondering van Heinz Konzalik is daar min ander nog lewende Europese skrywers wat met soveel Afrikaanse aandag kan spog.’ ‘Dürrenmatt-drama in Afrikaans en Engels opgevoer’, Die Vaderland, 1 October 1963.The Swiss writer was receiving attention from English-speaking South Africans as well. Schiess’s production of
Die Fisici had coincided with an English staging of the same play by the professional Langford-Inglis Company at Johannesburg’s Alexander Theatre.
7 See Barnard, ‘Dürrenmatt-drama’. Attention had turned to Frisch, too: after Schiess’s German and Afrikaans productions of
Biedermann, Leon Gluckman had directed Michael Bullock’s English translation in Johannesburg in February 1963.
8 ‘Young Pretoria actor and producer, Mario Schiess’, Daily Mail, 13 February 1963.Schiess, too, had become interested in staging Swiss plays in English, not just in Afrikaans. He was also increasingly vocal that these plays could speak to the South African situation. Trying to obtain the English-language rights to
Andorra in 1963, he pleaded with the American producers who held them, writing: ‘I feel South Africa needs this play and that it will make more impact in this country than anywhere else in the world. Its presentation becomes almost a moral duty because of the racialistic policy followed here. At the moment the theatre is still free of state-controlled censorship but parliament is this very moment debating a Bill which will impose this.’
9 Mario Schiess to Peter Witt, correspondence, 30 January 1963, private collection.Schiess was writing just before the Publications and Entertainments Act was passed. Despite having started rehearsing with the Hakahana Players, he had to shelve his production. The American producers were in discussion with an unnamed South African producer for a professional production (most likely the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (PACT), though nothing resulted), and would not negotiate with Schiess. Shortly afterwards, he wrote to Suzanne Czech of the International Copyright Bureau: ‘I have not lost one bit of enthusiasm for this play which has something so important to say to those who will listen in this country.’
10 Mario Schiess to Suzanne Czech, correspondence, 16 October 1963, private collection.In the meantime, Schiess was left with one alternative – to stage an Afrikaans
Andorra with the Volksteater. For this, he readily received the rights, under the condition ‘that the play must be translated and presented in accordance with the original play, and no “bias” of any kind put on the play; in other words, Mr Frisch would not wish nor allow the play to be changed from the spirit and the lines of his original’.
11 Suzanne Czech to Mario Schiess, correspondence, 28 October 1963, private collection. A straightforward and standard condition, its emphasis here suggests that Frisch was not only well-aware of translation’s power to inscribe domestic sensibilities onto a text, but was also attuned to the potential threat of censorship in 1960s South Africa.