This was great! Very funny, quite absurd, but dealing with science in a critical way that has to be acknowledged and is still relevant today. ( )

Thought-provoking play and quite funny too! ( )

The fact is, there's nothing more scandalous than a miracle in the realm of science.

Three of history's greatest physicists meet in a drawing-room: Newton, Einstein and Möbius. Newton has a bottle of cognac hidden in the fireplace. Einstein has just strangled a woman to death. And Möbius is being visited by the ghost of King Solomon, who is telling him the secrets of a Unified Field Theory.

Except the drawing-room belongs to a Swiss insane asylum, and the three men are patients.

What follows is a playful mash-up of a country-house murder-mystery with a scientific drama-of-ideas. At first the execution reminded me of Tom Stoppard – high praise round my way, because I think Stoppard's one of the greatest writers alive. But while Stoppard's work is always discursive, and never tries to convince you of a particular position, Dürrenmatt takes a more polemic approach here – especially in the second act, where the characters are increasingly fixated on the dangers of scientific discoveries falling into the wrong hands.

She considered me an unrecognized genius. She didn't realize that today it is the duty of a genius to remain unrecognized.

Great line. Of course when this was first performed in 1962, the Cold War was still on and this felt more of a live issue. It was less than 20 years since the real Einstein had famously said that if he'd known what the results of nuclear research would be, he would have become a watchmaker. (He also said, ‘The discovery of nuclear chain reactions need not bring about the destruction of mankind any more than did the discovery of matches,’ but no one remembers that one.)

These are still crucial questions, but I think the sophistication of the debate has slightly overtaken the moral of this play. Nevertheless, there is a huge amount of fun and intellectual enjoyment to be had here, with jokes and theories and interesting dramatic ideas on every page. I'd love to see it staged – but if waiting for your local theatre to get on board seems daunting, the ideas involved make this well worth reading in the meantime. ( )

For the simple reason that I didn't finish this book, I won't rate it. I don't think it is fair, that the form in which I tried to read this story made me not finish it.
I can't comment on the contents, since I didn't read the book. I have an aversion against plays. Only plays in book form, but that's bad enough. For the xx-th time I tried, I thought it wouldn't be so hard this time, since it is only a very thin book. But no.
The fact that the storyline is mixed with descriptions of the scenery, of what the players need to do, how they need to look is too distracting for me. Not only here, but in any play in writing.

So, I guess I'll just have to go to the theatre and see it being played :-) And whenever I get the chance I will, because the story itself sounds interesting enough!

A quirky play from Switzerland. The central theme is that of three physicists who are committed to an asylum because they are not in contact with reality. One believes he is Albert Einstein, one believes he is Sir Isaac Newton, and the other one is Mobius. A sort of not-so typical entry in the scientists wanting to take over the world genre. This one has a couple of twists that lead to a bit of a surprise ending. The discussions between characters are typical of the time it was written, during the early 1960s, when society was obsessed with the coming nuclear holocaust, but it is still a good discussion of the intersection of science, ethics, business, and government. It loses a lot in the final wrap up speech, where the author suddenly begins to channel Pat Robertson, and blame the entire situation on turning away from God. ( )