Max Frisch
Frisch's dramas up until the early 1960s are divided by the literary commentator into three groups: (1) the early wartime pieces, (2) the poetic plays such as "" ("Don Juan oder Die Liebe zur Geometrie") and (3) the dialectical pieces. It is above all with this third group, notably the parable "The Fire Raisers" (1953), identified by Frisch as a "lesson without teaching", and with "Andorra" (1961) that Frisch enjoyed the most success. Indeed, these two are among the most successful German language plays. The writer nevertheless remained dissatisfied because he believed they had been widely misunderstood. In an interview with Heinz Ludwig Arnold Frisch vigorously rejected their allegorical approach: "I have established only that when I apply the parable format, I am obliged to deliver a message that I actually do not have". After the 1960s Frisch moved away from the theatre. His late biographical plays "" ("Biografie: Ein Spiel") and "" were apolitical but they failed to match the public success of his earlier dramas. It was only shortly before his death that Frisch returned to the stage with a more political message, with "Jonas and his Veteran", a stage version of his arresting dialogue "Switzerland without an army? A Palaver".
N. Richard Nash
Nash published two books on philosophy, "The Athenian Spirit" and "The Wounds of Sparta". Nash wrote his first play, "Parting at Imsdorf", in 1940, which won the Maxwell Anderson Verse Drama Award. He next penned the Shakespearian-themed comedy "The Second Best Bed", produced on Broadway in 1946. The highly acclaimed drama led to him writing more shows, including "The Young and Fair" (1948), "See the Jaguar" (1952, for which he won the International Drama Award in Cannes and the Prague Award), and "The Rainmaker" (1954, starring Geraldine Page; revived on Broadway in 1999). "The Rainmaker", a full-length play, had originally been a Philco Television Playhouse one-act 1953 television production. It was translated to over 40 languages and made into a 1956 Hollywood film starring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn, and a 1982 full-length TV production. The play was made into a Broadway musical, "110 in the Shade".