Durrenmatt: the Comedy of Despair.

Swish author Friedrich Durrenmatt has establish for himself a reputation. American and British audiences were not, apparently, particularly enthusiastic in their first reactions to The Visit, his most recent full-length play. It is one of the grimmest of his plays, and the sharp wit of the dialogue, together with the calculated buffoonery of a number of the minor characters, only serves to emphasize the fundamental harshness of its attitude. Durrenmatt in his essay Problems of the Theatre maintains that historical tragedy, that is, drama concerning the conflicts of political rulers, is impossible today because political power itself has become so gigantic and uncontrollable that it ceases to offer the possibility of effective drama in contemporary political life.