[It is Dürrenmatt's] conviction that tragedy cannot justifiably be mirrored in the dealings of a lone protagonist, since the latter's individuality has been effaced by the collective concerns of a highly organized society. Tragedy implies a sense of individual choice, and it is precisely this autonomous moral responsibility which Dürrenmatt finds to be lacking in the contemporary world.

In his most important theoretical contribution entitled 'Problems of the Theater', Dürrenmatt states that although one no longer can justifiably present personal tragedy on stage, nevertheless, the tragic in life can still be illuminated, and, he writes, this sense of the tragic can best be accentuated by means of comic elements, through the incongruous, the bizarre, the grotesque, et al. The tragic is often seen as a catastrophic reversal of the social order, as an abyss that opens suddenly to engulf all that are being pushed toward...