As a political fable, Max Frisch’s Biedermann und die Brandstifter is pretty great. Variously known to English-speaking audiences as The Firebugs, The Fire Raisers, and—in a 2007 translation by Alistair Beaton (apparently the one used in this new Trap Door Theatre production, though it’s attributed to “Alistair Bead” in the program)—The Arsonists, Frisch’s wicked piece of writing gives us Gottlieb Biedermann, a wealthy burgher who manufactures a useless hair elixir called Follica Plus and owns a fine house in a town that’s been shaken lately by a rash of arsons. Biedermann is busy clucking over a newspaper story about the fires, in fact, when we first meet him. Seems the guilty parties walk right up to each victim’s door, smooth-talk their way inside, even get the owner to put them up for a while, as guests, before they reduce the place to ashes. Biedermann can’t fathom the gullibility of these folks. He’d never fall for a con like that.
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And then, of course, the doorbell rings.
From then on The Arsonists plays out as an object lesson, demonstrating how very right Eisenring is. He talks detonators with Biedermann, even gets his host to help him measure out lengths of fuse. And he certainly doesn’t make much of an effort to hide all that gasoline.
Through 11/17: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland, 773-384-0494, trapdoortheatre.com, $20-$25.
