The play was adapted for Australian TV in 1964 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in Melbourne.[5][6] Australian drama was relatively rare at the time and it was common for local versions of overseas plays to be produced.[7]
Premise
At a mental asylum in Europe, police investigate the murder of two nurses who were assigned to three inmates, all physicists: Mobius, Beutler, and Ernesti. Mobius imagines himself as in contact with King Solomon. Beutel and Ernesti maintain they are Newton and Einstein.
Cast
- Terry Norris as Beutler
- Wynn Roberts as Mobius
- Robert Peach as Ernesti
- Syd Conabere
- Brian James
- Patricia Kennedy as psychiatrist
- Gerda Nicolson
- Elizabeth Wing
Production
The play had been first produced in London in January 1963 and made its Australian stage premiere in St Martins Theatre Sydney, October 1963.[8]
It was one of 20 TV plays produced by the ABC in 1964.[9] Chris Muir described the play as "full of the unexpected and rich in dramatic climaxes. It is also a play of black humour. Dürrenmatt, while making us laugh at ourselves, makes us feel uncomfortable in the process by showing us our failings often through grotesque imagery."[8]
Reception
The critic for the Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the production:
Shifted the convincing effects in the play from the chaff of its thriller-comedy element. The light relief dialogue is there for the purpose of keeping a puzzled live audience amused, and on television this doubtful sprinkling of humour did not come through; similarly the two murders and police investigations range false in such unrealistic treatment. Christopher Muir... followed Duerrenmatt's directions closely, imposing on television the geometrical pattern of the asylum common room with its three cell doors and the curiously clockwork behaviour of the characters. As though seen under a magnifying glass, the gripping features of the play showed clear and sharp; the only real and understandable figure, fortunately one central to the play, was given a worthy portrayal by Wynn Roberts (although one of his big scenes was cut). This was Mobius, the genius impelled by both fear and courage. Tension is well supplied to the second half of the play by, the unexpected twists of the plot, and the cold, lucid arguments of the three physicists were excellently focused in this production.[10]
