Postscript

Normally I wouldn’t venture to seek direct contact with you as I do today. But since the opportunity has arisen to send you a letter in a synchronistic manner, so to speak, I have to grasp the opportunity. I did write to you once before, twenty years ago, though you will presumably not have received the letter.

Back then, as today, it was about the performance rights for one of your plays. This time it’s ‘Biedermann und die Brandstifter’. We enquired at Suhrkamp Verlag, but were told that this play is blocked for certain countries. We weren’t given the opportunity to explain our reasons for choosing this particular play, not even over the phone. I have got the impression that nothing I could propose would have the slightest effect, so I have decided to write this letter directly to you. Perhaps it contains some things that might interest you.

Over twenty years ago, I was – to the best of my knowledge – the first person to stage a play by Frisch in South Africa. It was a production in German of ‘Biedermann’. It was well-enough received for me to be asked to direct a new production in Afrikaans, which was found extremely unsettling because the parallels to our circumstances were clear to some people. In 1964 I staged ‘Andorra’, again in Afrikaans, and it had an even bigger ‘impact’. In 1968 I staged the same play again, this time in English. Later came ‘Don Juan’. Perhaps you will believe me in my enthusiasm for your work; for me, ‘Andorra’ is the play of modern theatre. What’s more, I believe that I have read every word that you have published, from ‘Blätter aus den Brotsack’ [sic; recte ‘… aus dem Brotsack’, literally ‘Leaves from the bread bag’, Frisch’s diary from his period of military service in the Swiss Army in 1939] up to ‘Blaubart’ [‘Bluebeard’].

For twenty years I have been involved in bringing modern, liberal theatre to the stage in South Africa. And now that my friend and collaborator [Cobus Rossouw], who is surely the most prominent actor in the country, has assumed a high position in the state-subsidised theatre organisation, we hope to be able to exert a strong influence together. This is why we wanted to stage ‘Biedermann’, which my friend would direct with my assistance.

We intended casting Schmitz and Eisenring with black actors, and we wanted to place a heavy emphasis on Schmitz’s ‘speech of self-defence’ in the epilogue. This would leave no one cold in this country, because your play is closely related to our reality. It is very important that we don’t allow public dialogue to fall asleep. With ‘Biedermann’, we wanted on the one hand to demonstrate how theatre is pertinent to everyday reality, and also to show how playing down danger signals (which are becoming more frequent here) can only have one outcome. Blocking the play deprives us of this opportunity. If it was done for political reasons, then it is achieving exactly the opposite: liberal voices will have to remain silent. It goes without saying that all performances would be open to all races.

This is roughly what we would have liked to explain to the publisher, had we not hit a brick wall. It would be nice if this were to make you change your mind, because your publisher cannot ignore your wishes! Whatever you decide, I hope that your next book or play will be published soon!

With best wishes,