The Physicists

Play

Writers: Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Overview

Show Information

Category
Play
Number of Acts
2
First Produced
1961
Genres
Drama, Dark Comedy
Settings
Unit/Single Set
Time & Place
Les Cerisiers, a private sanitorium, Late 1950s
Cast Size
large
Licensor
Ideal for
College/University, Community Theatre, Ensemble Cast, Large Cast, Professional Theatre, Regional Theatre
Casting Notes
Mostly male cast
Includes adult, young adult, late teen, early teen characters

Synopsis

A nurse has been murdered at Les Cerisiers, a private sanitarium run by the world-renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Mathilde von Zahnd. This is the second nurse killed in three months, and both have been murdered by residents of the physicist ward. There is Herbert George Beutler, who believes himself to be Sir Isaac Newton; Ernst Heinrich Ernesti, who believes himself to be Albert Einstein; and Johann Wilhelm Möbius, who believes himself to be visited by the Biblical King Solomon. All three physicists have lost their minds--or is it perhaps the modern world that has lost its mind instead? Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Physicists is one of his most popular and enduring works, examining the responsibility of science in a post-WWII, WMD-armed world.

Lead Characters


The Physicists guide sections