The Promise
A play based on a work by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
A crime that appears to have been solved, and a detective who doesn’t believe it. Friedrich Dürrenmatt wrote *The Promise* as a “requiem for the detective novel,” radically challenging the familiar conventions of the genre. With biting irony, he paints a masterful psychological portrait of an investigator whose quest for the truth leads to his downfall.
The body of little Gritli Moser is found in the Mägendorf Forest. Inspector Matthäi, who is about to be transferred to Jordan, promises the distraught mother that he will find the perpetrator. Soon, a suspect confesses to the crime and takes his own life. The case seems closed. But Matthäi does not believe the suspect was guilty. Obsessed with the idea of a serial killer, he devises a risky plan. He takes over a remote gas station and tries to lure the killer with a decoy—his housekeeper’s young daughter.
What begins as a determined quest for justice turns into a dangerous game with fate. Dürrenmatt tells a story—as gripping as it is moving—about truth, chance, and the price of human tenacity.
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