He burns and whistles at the premiere of Kreuzlinger

Biedermann (Adrian Furrer) between the incendiaries Schmitz (Hans-Caspar Gattiker, on the left) and Eisenring (Andrej Reimann). (Image: Mario Gaccioli)

Hey, how does it explode and bangs and shines in the Bodenseehimmel! Another house is burning, once again the incendiary hit. They had an easy game, because Mr. Biedermann only wanted humanity to overcome suspicion and become his friends.

While the director salutes bosses and government advisers, a robotic lawnmower turns his round in front of the pink Biedermann house. , the seagulls are leaning on the water. But then the sky closes, a bell calls the spectators to their seats. Leopold Huber passes the platform and says, "We are decrepit people." And let the firemen go up. Hey, how the Deutz Magirus rattles and stinks. Firefighters jump and stand in front of Biedermann's house.

Soon it's too late for insight and action

They form the chorus, because the old choir Max Frisch "has always reminded the brave firefighter who can not do anything before burning" as he wrote it for the first time sixty years ago, because "then it is – tragedy and today – too late". The choir represents the city and so we spectators, it "looks, soothes and warns".

Hair maker Gottlieb Biedermann steps over the house, lights a cigar, comments on newspaper articles about arson and arson. The visit of wrestler Schmitz annoys him. The, a mixture of dripping sentimentality and mocking cunning ("The best and safest camouflage is always the bare truth – no one believes"), flatters and calls for shelter in the flammable screed. Biedermann refuses, but succumbs to flattery. Schmitz knows how to manipulate the master of the spades, his selfishness, his mistrust, his bad conscience, his security thinking. When his pal Eisenring lies down in the attic by lifting barrels full of gasoline and connecting fuses, it is too late for insight and action.

Director Leopold Huber is enthusiastic about Max Frisch's clear language. And he stays close to the template.

"For the first time in forty years, I have not deleted or changed a word."

So he leaves the parabolic piece and leaves the spectators with the current task. Huber rather disturbs the violence of incendiaries, who work without ideology, who are ordinary criminals.

Biedermann fraternizes with the incendiary

Wonderful piece of Hans-Caspar Gattiker and Andrej Reimann the arsonists: the outrageously smiling and cunning Schmitz mesh shirt and leather jacket and the ring of cultured iron giving in a coat. Adrian Furrer gives the lazy and spoiled Biedermann a glossy computer, which drives his employee Knechtling to suicide and whose widow indicates the house. Astrid Keller (Babette Biedermann) and Maria Lisa Huber (maid Anna) give a profile and wit to female figures, who are slightly pale by Frisch. Biedermann invites the criminals to dinner, fraternises with them loudly, not to disturb them. Then he burns and knocks. Then the first applause burst.