Review

In “Biografie Ein Spiel” the play repeatedly shows what it would be like if the main character could go back to a certain point in the past, re-choose his actions from there, and live his life again. The play repeatedly shows the results of going back to a certain point in the past and changing his actions little by little, asking how he could have redone his current choices. Although the play was written about 40 years ago, the shelf's performance never made it feel dated. The audience was able to approach the differences delicately presented as the different choices were made. The performance, held amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine amplifying anxiety, left a deep impression as a stage that directly questioned the choices of life and the meaning of life.
Naoko YONEYA
International Association of Theatre Critics, Japan Centre

Director's note

"There you have it—you’re not acting according to the present but following the memory. That’s what this is. You believe you already know the future from your own experience. That’s why you always end up with the same story." (Max Frisch, "Biografie Ein Spiel" *translated by Birgit Schreyer Duarte)
Story. In the end, aren't we human beings only able to touch the "world" through stories = words? Hannes Kürmann, a professor of behavioural science, the main character of Max Frisch's play "Biografie Ein Spiel" tries to live his life anew under the direction of a director (or game master), referring to a biography = text that records his life. (But why a biography? ... Yes, this is also a written word and a story!)
Humans are generally creatures who wish to make their lives more dramatic, or more beautiful, gentle, and wonderful. Even if it seems like a mundane and ordinary life to others - because values ​​differ from person to person, of course, even those values ​​are constructed with words and stories -
Yes. In the end, we humans may be unable to escape the realm of stories such as the past constructed with existing, common words - which can also be called human memory, or more broadly, the history of the world - and face the "present" which is here and now/the here and now itself, in other words, to come into contact with the "world" itself. After reading Max Frisch's play "Biografie Ein Spiel", I couldn't help but think about this.
But, but that's not it for me. I want to pursue the possibility of a different life, and I don't want to give up trying even if it fails. And that is the very desire that Max Frisch found in the appeal of happenings in theatre rehearsals - can't we at least express that the events that unfold on stage are just one of several possible events? It's a search for possibilities, and above all, a longing for the present, the world.
I want to face the present, that is, the world directly. I want to break through this modern society in which we are divided in many places, isolated from each other, excluding others, and in which nations and societies are becoming self-restricted in their places at every layer, and communicate directly with the world, directly with others. And I think that this is a necessary attempt to overcome our foolish history = story, which is repeated. And I believe that this possibility remains in the performance of theatre.
Yasuhito Yano

About Max Frisch (1911-1991)

Swiss playwright, novelist and prose writer. Born in Zurich, Frisch published his first play in 1945, right before the end of WWII, and drew attention from the public because of his sharp criticism of post-war Switzerland and Europe. In addition to Biografie: Ein Spiel (1967/1984), Frisch published various plays including: Biedermann und die Brandstifter (1958) which criticized the civic society of Germany and the rest of Europe that ultimately allowed the rise of the Nazi’s, and Andorra (1961) which attributed Antisemitism to the idolization of the Jews imposed by others. Frisch also wrote quite a few pieces of prose including: Tagebuch 1946-1949 (1950) and Tagebuch 1966-1971 (1972) composed of individual records mixed with fiction, observations of current events and theories of literature and theatre. Stiller (1954) and Homo Faber (1957) were translated into many languages and granted him international recognition.