Thoughout the western World Friedrich Durrenmatt is rapidly becoming recognised as one of the most significant writers of our age. kenneth Tynanrecently wrote about ‘The Physicist’ in The Observer. he said ‘Durrenmatt plays on our nerves and through them reaches our brains using the techniques of detective fiction to convey an apocalyptic message: the effect that of a Hitchcock turned prophet. beneath the Arctic cap of the arguement there simmers a passionate concern for human survival, and this wedding of logic and charity is what prompts me to hail the piece as Durrenmatt’s finest work’.