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The Visit: A Tragi-Comedy

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Start date: December 1, 2019

Finish date: December 31, 2019

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Jan 08, 2019 Josh Caporale rated it really liked it

4.5 stars

I have wanted to read more plays for a few months and am hoping to incorporate them a bit more into the Literary Gladiators agenda. The combination of my interest in plays, the theatre of the absurd (though Durrenmatt would not have identified as such), and Swiss culture led me to Friedrich Durrenmatt and what has been deemed his most recognizable play in The Visit. Whew, this was incredibly absurd, incredibly off the wall, but incredibly raw, honest, and amazing! The Visit takes the in 4.5 stars

I have wanted to read more plays for a few months and am hoping to incorporate them a bit more into the Literary Gladiators agenda. The combination of my interest in plays, the theatre of the absurd (though Durrenmatt would not have identified as such), and Swiss culture led me to Friedrich Durrenmatt and what has been deemed his most recognizable play in The Visit. Whew, this was incredibly absurd, incredibly off the wall, but incredibly raw, honest, and amazing! The Visit takes the interests of society and challenges their values in the way that whether or not it would be worth another life, no matter how flawed they may be. At the same time, it explores the guilt of particular people and whether or not penance is meant to be indefinite.

This particular play revolves around A VISIT from Claire Zachanassian, a billionaire on her seventh marriage (by the end of the play, she will be on her ninth as per the character guide at the beginning) and has made her riches through each of these marriages, in particular one to the owner of an Armenian oil company, makes her way to her hometown of Gullen (which translates to "excrement"), to see her now rundown hometown and offer them a billion dollars. The contingency to this offer, though, is the life of Alfred Ill (in some versions Anton Schill). Ill is a respected general store owner in the town that is in line to become Gullen's mayor when the current mayor steps down, but due to circumstances that changed Claire's life, she is looking for "justice" and that is in the form of Ill's life.

This play explores the guilt of one man's actions and the paranoia that it can develop. There is also an explanation of women in society, the power that money has on ALL people, the material values people have, and the role of all forms of media, one particular moment involving the responses that they so heavily desire being a favorite of mine. The play itself responded to this brilliantly! I felt there was a great sense of intensity among all of the characters and it reflects on how people respond to others and how disposable they can be for "the greater good" or fulfillment of their material values. The reason I bumped it down half a star was because Ill did not show remorse toward Claire, despite the fact he continued to interact with her throughout the play. Perhaps this could be a reflection of his coming to terms, but while there were moments he was fighting for his life, there were no moments where Ill tried to sort this out with Claire and work something out.

This play does break fourth wall, but does so in a clever way. This play was clearly written with the intent of being performed, even going to the point of having characters portraying trees and birds in the forest, having chairs arranged to form a vehicle, and most hysterically, giving permission to have husbands seven, eight, and nine be performed by the same person. I could only imagine that they just have him change wigs and stick-on facial hair.

This is a weird and different kind of play, but one that is very reflective on society and is leaving me thinking much beyond the page. It is definitely worth checking out and holds a sense of relevance with everything that is going on today. ...more

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