Max Frisch: Three Plays – Santa Cruz * Now They’re Singing Again * Rip van Winkle

The three plays collected in this volume were the first of Max Frisch’s dramatic works to reach the public. Now for the first time they appear in English, thanks to the translation skills of Michael Bullock. These plays are of special interest both to students of modern drama and admirers of Frisch. Santa Cruz (1944), Frisch’s first dramatic effort, has as its subtitle ‘A Romance’, and represents an element of fantasy that runs through all his writing, but was never again to occupy such a pre-eminent position. Now They’re Singing Again (1945), written under the immediate impression of World War II, tells of a soldier who is traumatised by what he sees, hears and feels on his journey through the smouldering battlefields of Central Europe. The radio play Rip Van Winkle (1953), written after Frisch heard the legend during his stay in the USA, foreshadows his novel Stiller. A famous sculptor returns to his native Switzerland after a long absence, during which he feels that his experiences have changed him into another person. He vehemently denies being the man everyone, including his wife, believes him to be. The theme, the imposition of identity, underlies virtually all Frisch’s writing and became a central element in his philosophy. (various cast)