The Fire Raisers

Fire Raisers, The (Biedermann und die Brandstifter)

    Alternative Title: Biedermann and the Firebugs

    Author: Max Frisch

    First Performance: 1958, Zurich

    Published: 1958

    First English Translation: 1962

    Genre: Drama in 6 scenes, prelude, and epilogue; German prose

    Setting: Middle-class home in Central Europe, late 1940s, and hell

    Cast: 5m, 3f, chorus (m)

Gottlieb Biedermann (the name suggests a solid middle-class citizen), a hair-tonic manufacturer, is visited one evening by a homeless wrestler, Joseph Schmitz. Despite his fears about arsonists in the area, Biedermann is inveigled into offering Schmitz shelter for the night. The Chorus of firemen report that all is quiet. The following day, Biedermann is alarmed to discover that his wife has taken in Schmitz's...

[The entire page is 382 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass