SWISS playwright Friedrich Durrenmatt studied philosophy and went to Berlin for postgraduate studies into Kierkegaard. There, he quickly formed a very different view of his native country and its famed neutrality, instead seeing a state polluted by greed and hypocrisy where neutrality was a euphemism for complicity.
The fledgling philosopher turned his attention to playwriting and he soon became known for his dark political satires that reflected his experiences of World War II.
The thing with political satires is their timeless relevance, and so what better moment to stage The Visit, written in 1956, than the days of Trump II, where Durrenmatt’s grotesquerie and absurdity is becoming the norm.
In this play, chosen by Arts University Bournemouth students and directed by David O’Shea for production at the Palace Court Theatre, a billionairess returns to her native town, where the inhabitants now live in poverty, the adminstration is bankrupt, the factories closed and the glories of its artistic and economic past are fading. Madam Zachanassian is seen as the possible saviour, and she’s arriving today. Her first lover, Alfred Ill, is still in town, a popular and charismatic shopkeeper about to become mayor. He’s the obvious person to persuade her to part up with the cash to save the town and its people.
But all is not what it seems. While Mr Ill talks about the love the pair once had, Mme Zachanassian, pausing between husband number 7 and number 8, only remembers his treachery. Hell, as you know, has no fury like a woman scorned, and serious money makes for serious fury. So she offers to save the town (which she has gradually bought and destroyed over the years since she left) if she can have the body of her first love served cold. Only then can she take him, bury him overlooking the Amalfi coast, and grieve.
Can she buy justice? Does the offer of cash erode the humanity of humankind? Is compassion no longer needed? These are the sort of questions we are suddenly facing in our everyday lives once again, after decades of MacMillan’s “never had it so good” days.
AUB is not just about acting students, but about set and lighting designers, costume makers, wig creators … everyone needed to mount a production. So it is no surprise that the audience came into the Art Deco theatre and gasped at the powerfully atmospheric set, designed by Eve Stewart. The 16-strong cast was dressed in often sumptuous costumes designed by Yelena Moss, and original songs were composed by musical director Sarah Astbury.
The director brought the audience into the action by utilising the entire theatre for entrances and exits. And by expecting us, watchers, to vote for the critical decisions. Yes, it could happen.
The success of a production of this remarkable play depends on a strong ensemble, led by two leading actors in the role of the one-time teenage lovers, Clare Zachanassian and Alfred Ill. Isabella J Crets Koenders, memorable as Lady Montagu in last year’s Romeo and Juliet, gives a mesmerising performance as the woman with the world at her beck and call, but haunted by the injustice done her by her town and her lover as a pregnant teenager. Will Rosander has just the right degree of arrogant self regard and terrified but resigned acceptance of his deserved fate at the hands of his friends and neighbours.
Louise Scott Moody, a properly mercurial Mercutio in November’s R and J, made the professor’s powerful pleas for sanity and compassion. Julie Ekholm and Yasemin Koc impressed as the blind eunuchs punished for their part in Ill’s duplicity and Danny Gnaulati made a convincing police inspector and reporter.
This production was an eye-opening journey into the world of Durrenmatt, and the bizarre turn that the earth seems to be making in 2025. It was brilliantly realised by the cast, the creative teams and the crews, and another reason to make sure that any AUB production should be on your theatre calendar. The multi-talented and truly international students are leading the way, at a time when theatre schools across the country are cutting courses, and even closing down.
See them while you can, in Bournemouth’s historic theatre brought back from the brink by the university and its determination to give the best chance to its students.
GP-W