Very interesting author - just read i

Romulus is one of the biggest hits of this sardonic Swiss playwright and novelist. Known in the USA only for The Viisit and the Physicists, Durrenmatt is one of this century's most brilliant theatrical lights. His works are informed by sardonic humor, beautiful language, intriguing plot twists, high suspense (he pot-boiled murder mysteries)and political insight. His essays are also interesting. Anything by him is going to be a good read.

Friedrich Durrenmatt, The Visit (Grove, 1956)

Another excellent piece of work from Friedrich Durrenmatt, the story of The Visit takes place in a ..town in central Europe somewhere; the country is not given (the reasons should be obvious). As the town is on the verge of bankruptcy, with almost total unemployment and a pervasive sense of despair, one of the town's local folk made good comes back, hinting that she will give the town enough money to bail it out: get the factory working again, allow the stores to restock, that sort of thing. The night she arrives, she tells the townspeople that their expectations of the reasons for her visit are true, and that she will give them the money they need. She has one condition: she requires justice in the form of a lynch mob. She wants the townspeople to [take out] one of their own.

The revelation of the intended victim is the major twist here; in many ways, the play's climax is actually this scene, at the end of Act I, and the following two acts are a painfully drawn-out dénouement as we watch the townspeople's changing reactions to the woman and her demand. Unlike The Pledge, in which we see the gradual development of one man's madness, in this case we're given a woman who's arguably mad from the get-go (certainly, she's as obsessed as The Pledge's protagonist is at the end of that novel from long before the beginning of this play), and we watch the way her madness, combined with her wealth, affects the town around her over the course of a few days. Durrenmatt is a master at using small details to show how the community changes its views over a relatively short period of time, and even manages to make the rather horrific journey humorous at times (the play is defined as, and works as, a tragicomedy). We find ourselves alternately sympathizing with and horrified at the actions of the townspeople, and see no conflict in the two attitudes. A wonderful play.

"The Visit: A Tragi-comedy," by Friedrich Durrenmatt, has been translated from German into English by Patrick Bowles. This three-act play has a copyright date of 1956, and the English translation has a copyright date of 1962.

This is an outrageous tale with a strong satiric flavor. The story takes place in Guellen, a European town that has fallen into economic depression and decay. As the play opens the townspeople are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Claire Zachanassian, a hometown girl who has gone on to become super-wealthy. The townspeople hope that her financial generosity will save Guellen. But from early on in the first act, Claire hints that she has a sinister, even deadly, ultimate goal.

This is a colorful, richly peopled dark comedy. It's full of arresting dialogue, suspense, and grotesque characters. A major theme is the tension between capitalistic greed and the Western humanistic tradition. The play is also about sex, lies, and injustice.

With her artificial body parts, bizarre retinue, and colorful backstory, Claire is one of the most remarkable characters in the history of drama--perhaps the most commanding female stage character since Lady Macbeth. She is charming yet sinister, grotesque yet oddly sympathetic. The creation of this character is, in my opinion, a great triumph for Durrenmatt.

For companion texts, I would recommend the following: "Rene's Flesh," by Virgilio Pinera; "Bedside Manners," by Luisa Valenzuela; and "The Doorman," by Reinaldo Arenas. Each of these works is, in its own way, as bizarre and stimulating as "The Visit."

Hidden under the multitudes of todays so-called prose, this play nevertheless stands out as a blue diamond among bleak stones.

I originally read this play some time ago while studying German in college and it is one of the few works from those years that has "stuck with me". In fact I still have the German language edition that I used at that time.
As other reviewers have said, one of the central themes of this work is the degree of responsibility that scientists have to humanity or something called "the public". Having worked for over twenty years now as a nuclear scientist, I can definitely say that at times the desire for knowledge can override the consideration of all the possible uses of a given technology. The question them becomes, can an idea be "unthought"? This secondary theme of the book is intertwined with the theory of the inevitability of ideas at a given time and place.
The translation by Kirkup is quite good as compared to the original German version that I have. Though the expository style (some very long dialogs) may be a bit daunting at times, stick with it. This play is a philosophical discussion, not a Hollywood action film.

I want all of you to read this play. It is weird butfascinating, surprising and just brilliant. Get to know Germanliterature at one of its best!

Durrenmatt's play provides an excellent and thought-provoking critique on the role of modern science and technology in human affairs. Is science responsible to humanity? If we deem specific knowledge "harmful", how can we hope to prevent its discovery? If the knowledge does exist, how do we prevent its misuse? This is a play that is incredibly relevant in an age plagued with similar issues in genetic engineering and cloning. I'd highly recommend the German translation.