The Visit

Directed by: Martin Biltcliffe   

Written by: Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Performance Dates: November 2007

Performed by: Senior School 

Review:

Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s dark, satirical comedy centres around Claire Zachanassian, a profligate old dame, who acquired her fathomless wealth through a series of weddings, often short lived. She immediately makes an impression, bursting onto the stage, wearying of husband no. 7.  The story begins as she decides to pay a visit to her hometown of Guellen, a once cultured, now dilapidated town. To the audience, this seems to be a trip of reminiscence, a visit home by a global traveller, a visitor the locals are desperate to wring money out of lest the town decline further, but soon the hidden agendas are revealed.
She announces her donation of a million pounds to Guellen (German for a mixture of urine and faeces, to paraphrase my German exchange, used by farmers as manure) and its inhabitants. The joy is clear, the satirical townsfolk rejoice. But, Claire (performed by the mesmerising Louisa Hollway, who seems to know the character and execute the role wonderfully) has not yet finished. Her only demand in return, is the death of local grandee and mayor elect, Alfred Ill. At first the villagers object, morally it is wrong, they cry. The mayor allays Ill’s fears, ‘we are Europeans, not savages.’
But the bargain does not deter the Guelleners, and soon the town is seen in swanky, yellow shirts and expensive, yellow shoes, all bought ‘on credit’. Slowly Ill begins to fear for his life (the paranoid Alfred played to a T by Gav Landau). As the eccentric Zachanassian’s black panther escapes onto the streets, causing the locals to carry guns at all moments, Alfred becomes ever more suspicious. He loses credibility with the townspeople as it is exposed that he provided false witnesses to prove he had not fathered the child of the 17 year old Claire, who, after the trial, was forced to go into prostitution, the case brought by a former Chief of Justice deposed by Ill, now Zachanassian’s butler (enacted by the eloquent Laurence Anfo-Whyte). Despite the Mayor (the oratorial Charlie Marchant) handing Ill a gun, suggesting he take one for the team and do himself in, the play retains a comic quality, as we see the respected pillars of the community, namely the teacher, priest, policeman and doctor (played with acerbic satire by Jonathan Tamas, Cassian Farrelly, Joel Gulhane and Harry Thomson respectively), who slowly bend their morals to benefit their pockets.
The play even tests the moral fibre of the audience. In a harrowing scene, Gav Landau’s neurotic Ill flees to the station, headed for Australia, resolved that he is to be killed, only to be stopped by unclear reasons. It illustrates the terminal predicament of Ill evocatively for the audience as well as the power of money.

Eventually Zachanassian’s wealth seems to indirectly ‘buy’ justice. The teacher, having bought his fifth Irish whiskey on credit, calls a trial, where the originally opposing, concerned townspeople vote unanimously that Ill should be killed, now concerned only with money.
The play manages to achieve a balance of comedy and portrayal of dark modern life, the corruptness of which is hammered home even harder by the use of satire. Honourable mentions go to Uzair Bhatti as several of the husbands, Harry Michell, Harry Smith, Daniel Bratt and Jake Alden-Falconer as townspeople, Zain Ahsan and Roland Merz as members of Claire’s entourage, Flora Anderson and Juliet Bruce as wives of Ill and the Mayor, Joe Long and Alex Rose as the blind eunuchs, Charlie Meller as the radio commentator, Rosie Michell and Sam Collins, the children of Ill, Ed Nagle-Rose, Jake Selby and the Town Band.

William Prince 5M