'The Visit' Suspenseful, Hard-To-Forget Drama
‘The Visit’ Suspenseful, Hard-To-Forget Drama
By Pat Roessle
Within a matter of days an entire town must extinguish respect for its most popular citizen, to the extreme of condoning his murder.
There are no “bit parts” in “The Visit,” for the believability of its theme depends on the way each character rationalizes his own reversal in attitude. In ANn Arbor Civic Theater's opening production last night, some of the cast came across and some didn't.
The setting is Gullen, a contemporary European town where the spirit of the residents has been dying along with the economy. Emitting a beam of hope, billionairess Claire Zachanassian on a sentimental pilgrimage to the town she left decades ago. Surely, the people assure one another, the benefactress of so many cities won’t leave her childhood home in such despondency.
The anticipation throws the town into a wild, briefly comical frenzy, and John Stevens excels as the flattery spouting burgomaster. Madame Zachanassian responds to his bungling welcoming address an offer of one billion marks, to be divided among the town and each citizen. The community, amazed at her generosity, is doubly aghast at her terms.
Dorothy Maples portrays Claire as a regal and radiant woman, whose warmth goes no deeper than a painted smile, unflinching as her determination. World-hardened and cynical, she seems to have retained only the human passion of self-pity.
As Anton Schill, former lover and the victim of her revenge, Bob Starring carries the audience with him through sensations of humiliation, rejection and terror. His is an emotional role; he seemed to grow more at ease with it as the play progressed.
Costumier Dougie Stewart dresses the characters in drab, rummage sale variety clothing, and its colorless shabbiness matches that of the train station and town hall. Alice Crawford’s set design also includes a skeletal skyline of scraggy boards, a stark expression of Gullen's listless poverty. Madam Zachanassian’s vibrant wardrobe and her entourage of tuxedoed men are a vivid contrast to the dreariness.
Lighting, by Peter Wilde, and sound by Robert Sheff created an effective illusion of passing trains. And though the offstage snarl of the lady’s pet panther sounded less than fierce, some other off-beat musical effects added much to the mood of the play — particularly one eerie, tension-building, vibration.
Charles Stallman and director Allan Schreiber, as the town school teacher and doctor, display the quandry of greed, guilt and principles being experienced by all of their fellow citizens in a third-act confrontation with Madame Zachanassian. Beverley Pooley demonstrates that even the smallest speaking parts have great characterization potential, as the sulking, inexplicit eighth husband to be, Pedro.
Suspense rises with the sinister introduction of two blind men, convincingly portrayed by Ed Armbruster and Jim Kane. Their significance, the cause of the town’s blight and the reasons behind the visitor’s vengeful proposal, all unravel slowly.
The smooth pace of the scene changes in view of the fact that Civic Theatre had two nights to install sets and rehearse at Mendelssohn Theater after the dispersal of Professional Theater Program's "Cockadoodle Dandy" crew.
Friedrich Duerenmatt’s drama draws some rather uncompromising conclusions about human behavior; he delves not with the deepest chasms of the mind but its surface. The play, which continues through Saturday, is not one that viewers will quickly forget.