Duerrenmatt is known as a “painter of disaster,” not only as an artist, but equally as an author and playwright. Max Frisch still uses exploding water heaters, howling sirens, and a fire-reddened sky to show yet another spectacular downfall.

How often they were annoyed about their twin-like fate! Ever since the end of the ‘50s, Frisch and Duerrenmatt were known to literary critics as well as to German-speaking readers and theater audiences as Castor and Pollux, the twins from Greek myth. In a 1961 interview, Frisch commented on this situation: “What else can we do but be friends?”