The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi

"The world must be changed." Conceived as a dark comedy about the depths of idealism, Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play presents (and confronts) a series of themes enacted on stage: heavenly (≈ implacable) law, earthly (≈ repressive) justice, noble (≈ simple-minded) humanism, undogmatic (≈ cynical) pragmatism, and the instinctive (≈ amoral) will to live. These ethical and social principles are personified by a public prosecutor and a professional revolutionary (both began their careers as brothel workers), by a doctor and a politician, and by a society lady. Precious dialogue delivered with mocking distance, absurdly exaggerated plot twists, striking cabaret effects, and a synthetically symbolic setting (Europe-City) emphasize the show more didactic tendency and overall validity of this socially critical and misanthropic state farce, which ends with the triumph of the mindless consciousness of power. show less