A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

The Physicists (Kirkup)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  4w, 16m

Friedrich Dürrenmatt, James Kirkup

Friedrich Durrenmatt
Translated by James Kirkup

"Brooding over all is the head of the sanatorium, a psychiatrist, who has to enact the most frightening scene at the close of the play...Mixes bizarre comedy and satire, sometimes extremely amusing, with a science fiction approach." - The Stage

The Physicists (Kirkup)

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4w, 16m
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary
The scene is a madhouse and the focus is on three inmates who are nuclear physicists. One thinks he is Newton and another, Einstein. The third has visitations from Solomon. They appear to be nice, likeable lunatics, but nothing is as simple as it seems. Are they really mad? Or are they playing some murderous game with the world as the stake? Who is earnest and who is the spy? Gradually we learn that each has been led down the path to moral destruction, past the signposts of truth, the purity of science, and personal responsibility. The asylum to which their paths have led them seems much saner than the mad world they've left behind.
Police Inspector Voss: humane, vigorous; middle-aged
Blocher: a police photographer
Guhl: a police stenographer
1st Policeman 
2nd Policeman
Police Doctor
Herbert Beutler (Newton): about 50
Ernst Ernesti (Einstein): middle-aged
Johann Mobius: sensitive; about 40
Oskar Rose: a missionary
Adolf: son of Mobius: about 16
Wilfred: another son; 15
Jorg-Lukas: the youngest son; 14
Uwe Sievers: a male attendant 
McArthur: a male attendant
Murillo: a male attendant
Marta Boll: the matron; resolute; about 40
Doktor Von Zahnd: a hunchback spinster; about 55
Frau Lina Rose: kindly; middle-aged
Monika Stettler: a nurse; sympathetic; about 30
  • Setting A Drawing-room

Media

"Brooding over all is the head of the sanatorium, a psychiatrist, who has to enact the most frightening scene at the close of the play...Mixes bizarre comedy and satire, sometimes extremely amusing, with a science fiction approach." - The Stage, London

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

Available Formats:

Authors

Author

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Author

James Kirkup

Now Playing