At the German State Theatre Timisoara (GSTT) “The Fire Raisers” by Max Frisch is being staged, under the direction of Gábor Tompa.
The preview will be on
Tuesday, the 28th of June 2016, at 19:30,
in the closing of the 2015/2016 season of the German State Theatre.
The performance will be played in the Hall of the German State Theatre and features translation into Romanian.

Directing “The Fire Raisers” is attributed to Gábor Tompa, making this his first staging at the GSTT. Set and light design are done by Helmut Stürmer, costumes by Carmencita Brojboiu, masks by Ilona Varga-Járó, and video projections by Ovidiu Zimcea. The original music is composed Vasile Șirli, while Florin Fieroiu is the choreographer for the show. Cast reunites actors Franz Kattesch, Enikő Blénessy, Ioana Iacob, Radu Vulpe, Rareș Hontzu, Konstantin Keidel, Ida Jarcsek-Gaza, Olga Török, Dana Borteanu, Isa Berger, Isolde Cobeț, Tatiana Sessler-Toami, Silvia Török, Oana Vidoni and Anne-Marie Waldeck.
Playwright, writer and Swiss architect, Max Frisch explores themes such as identity, individuality, responsibility, morality and political engagement in his plays. He is considered, alongside Friedrich Dürrenmatt, one of the most important Swiss writers. He has received honorary titles from famous universities, such as the University of Marburg in Germany, Bard College, City University in New York or Birmingham University. He won important literary awards like the Georg Büchner Award in 1961 and Heinrich Heine Award in 1989.
Gábor Tompa was born in 1957 and studied directing at the Theatre and Film Academy in Bucharest. He has been collaborating with the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj-Napoca since 1981, becoming the director of this theatre in 1990. Starting with 2007 he is program director at the Directing Faculty at the California University in San Diego. He has done numerous shows in the country as well as abroad, in USA, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Canada, France and Spain. He has been awarded with several UNITER awards, the Hevesi Sándor award and has received numerous titles, like the title of Honoured Artist of the Republic of Hungary in 2002 and of Ambassador of Hungarian Culture in 2009.
”The Fire Raisers” parable – entitled in subtitle as “a didactic play without a moral” – speaks of the failure of the common man to take action against an imminent threat: strangers show up one by one in the cosmetics producer Biedermann house. Although scandalized by the information in the press that the arsonists in disguise would get into people’s houses on various pretences, only to set their houses on fire afterwards, Biedermann does not take a stand against the intruders in his own home. The grotesque comic and the critical accents accompany the action’s development towards an outcome, which with each step becomes inevitable. Frisch started work on the text in 1948, and the absolute premiere was in 1958 in Zürich, followed shortly after by instalments in over 50 theatres in various countries. The lack of reaction on behalf of the lead character was sometimes interpreted as a reflection on the conduit the allowed the ascension of a dictator such as Adolf Hitler.
Andreea Andrei - Press referent
Gabriela Schinderman - Secretary
Photo: Image from “The Fire Raisers”, a GSTT production. The photograph can be used in mass-media and promotional goals, including in electronic media.