Mr. Biedermann and the Arsonists

The city is plagued by fires, and the homes of respectable citizens turn to ash. Businessman Mr. Biedermann wants peace — until a stranger rings his doorbell asking for shelter. He lets him in not out of compassion, but from a sense of civic duty. Soon more guests arrive, and the house becomes a carousel of grotesque situations.

Swiss dramatist and prose writer Max Frisch wrote the play "Mr. Biedermann and the Arsonists" under the influence of the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, which he observed during repeated visits to Prague in 1948. It is not a one-time play, but a grotesque, timeless satire criticizing bourgeois philistinism. The production raises questions about the boundary between solidarity and conformism, about trust, and about how to deal with something foreign that one cannot or will not understand.

In the title role of Mr. Biedermann, long-time member of the HaDivadlo ensemble Jiří Miroslav Valůšek will perform.