REVIEW -- THE FIRE RAISERS
by Max Frisch

Performed by second year Drama Students
at St Martin's College, Lancaster

The Black Box Theatre, St Martin's College, Bowerham Road, Lancaster
Wednesday 8 to Saturday 11 March 2006

Toni Truwick as Gottlieb Biedermann and Christopher Loveless  as Schmitx

Like Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, The Fire Raisers, by Swiss playwright, philosopher and journalist Max Frisch (1911 -- 1981), was originally written as a radio play not long after World War II. It saw its British première at London's Royal Court Theatre in 1961 with Alfred Marks and John Thaw in the cast, directed by Lindsay Anderson.

Again, like the Dylan Thomas, it is not easy to classify the piece. Frisch's subtitle is “A Morality without a Moral: with an Afterpiece”. Hmmm -- what to make of that? Comparisons are difficult, but Greek tragedy (particularly with the Chorus), mediæval mystery plays (particularly Everyman), Terry Pratchett, the European Existentialist School and, perhaps most of all, Bertolt Brecht spring to mind.

Confused? The plot is straightforward: in a city panicking under the threats of terrorist attacks from arsonists, comfortably, middle-class couple Gottlieb and Babette Biedermann find themselves unwittingly offering shelter in their attic to first one homeless “hawker”, then two, then a third.

The fear of more firebombs and guerrilla attack is all around, however, and the battle for trust between the bourgeois hosts and their guests is developed in a manner that is pure Patricia Highsmith or Alfred Hitchcock.

Given this background, it was hardly surprising that recent terrorist attacks (the IRA, 9/11, the London bombings) and the present political brouhaha about immigration, detention, and the whole law and order debate sprang to mind. Oh, and the impending ban on smoking in public places too …

Chilling indeed -- and, fifty years on, very much a play for our times.

So how does The Fire Raisers end? Does it offer a solution to today's problems? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. The dénouement was -- well, you can imagine what happened to the Biedermann's house: but there was nothing to prepare the audience for the enigmatic and ingenious Afterpiece which follows …

So how did this all look on stage? Well, first of all, director Colin Knapp has a fine eye for detail and an acute sense of theatricality and apposite dramatic gestures, such as the goose dinner table setting, the small but telling naked flames all around the stage, and the vivid pageant of the final conflagration -- right down to the use of the, er, fire exit.

Knapp had chosen his excellent cast carefully, too. There is much scope here for characterisation and individuality in the main characters: the Biedermanns (Toni Truwick and Samantha Wellock) and their houseguests Schmitz and Eisenring (Christopher Loveless and Lisa Best). There are wonderful moments and opportunities too for the smaller parts, such as the coquettish maid Anna (Megan Harris) who stylishly (and quite rightly) let the audience know it could laugh right from the start, and the mysterious Doctor of Philosphy (Sophie Pearson).

Special mention must be made of the seven strong Chorus, led by Benjamin Fox. They were clad (some fittingly scantily) in full fire fighting rig, and were wonderfully choreographed, right down to sitting stoically stock still with arms folded in defiant objectivity. They spoke their ‘Woe, woe, woe' admonitions and commentary with great dignity, not a little humour and not a trace of camp.

Staging was imaginative and direct, the multiple locations - including Purgatory! - clearly depicted. Movement and gesture all added to the compounding suspense interlaced with often very, very black humour. It was so black sometimes we nearly choked on the charcoal fumes.

Also noteworthy was the music, provided by the College's Pianist in Residence Peter Noke. Sat at a lamp-lit keyboard in the corner of the stage, he evoked a 1930s German cabaret feel that added just the right atmosphere to this sometimes claustrophobic piece of theatre. The choice of music -- not very often but just enough -- was excellent; Bach, Chopin, Fauré, cabaret-style and Noël Coward added further background colour.

Full marks all round, then, from this former University lecturer to a riveting, imaginative, robust and, er, sizzling performance.

Copyright © 8 February 2006 Michael Nunn

Useful links to Max Frisch:
www.kirjasto.sci.fi/frisch.htm
www.german.leeds.ac.uk/germanplay/biography.html

The University of Stirling holds unique archive material relating to the first British production of the play (PDF format):
www.library.stir.ac.uk/lindsayanderson/documents/309.pdf