An apocalyptic drama with a touch of comedy, “Les fous de Dieu”《立此存照》is Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s first play. It caused a real scandal at its premiere in 1947 at the Zurich Schauspielhaus, however, launched the career of the playwright.

In the seventeenth century, extremist Anabaptists, determined to establish the kingdom of God on Earth, seized power in the city of Münster in Germany and made terror reign there. Dürrenmatt takes this historical episode as his starting point and tells a comical account of the total failure of the fanatical enterprise, thus shedding light on other collective follies at the end of the Second World War. With bitter irony and disturbing lucidity, he warns us against totalitarian abuses of all kinds.