This blog post was written by Maris Tiller, SCRC Research Services GRA. Maris is a Graduate student pursuing her Master’s in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction.
Swiss playwright Friederich Dürrenmatt’s tragicomic play Der Besuch der Alten Dame (direct translation: The Visit of the Old Lady) premiered in Zurich in 1956 to great success. That same year, playwright Maurice Valency brought the play to British audiences, called simply The Visit. Here at SCRC, we have a published copy of the script for this production.
Der Besuch der Alten Dame tells the story of a small town, Güllen, once a mildly successful township, now in economic straits. As the play opens, the town is preparing for the arrival of the billionaire Claire Zachanassian, who grew up in Güllen and was the lover of Alfred Ill,, the beloved owner of the town’s general store. The citizens hope that Claire will give them money to reinvigorate their town, which, upon her arrival, she offers to do. Claire offers one billion Swiss francs on the condition that Güllen collaborate to kill Alfred Ill, as he, along with the town, betrayed her many years ago when she became pregnant from their affair. At first, the people invoke their “Western values”, saying they would never do such a thing. However, throughout Act II and III, the town becomes more lavish with this promise of money, buying things on credit. It becomes increasingly clear, both to the audience and Ill, that Güllen will fulfill Claire’s desires.
This first English production, directed by Peter Brook, was not a direct translation of Dürrenmatt’s play. Valency is credited as an adapter of the play, rather than a translator, and Valency’s version of the play changes a lot of key details from Dürrenmatt’s original that simplifies the play’s story and themes. For example, at the end of act two, Alfred Ill (in Valency’s version Anton Schill) attempts to leave the town and the people of Güllen surround him at the train station. In the direct translation of the text, it is ambiguous whether the townspeople, as they surround him at the train station, are planning to murder him right then, keep him in Güllen, or if Ill is simply paranoid. Regardless, he misses the train and must stay, claiming he is “lost” (62). The power in Dürrenmatt’s play, and in this scene, is seeing the gradual transformation of the town into something sinister, and the uncertainty present in any given moment what their plans are.
In Valency’s version, however, Ill makes the concrete decision to stay in Güllen after missing the train, claiming he belongs in Güllen, it is his town, and he will not leave it. This makes Ill/Schill feel like a more confusing character, a choice that feels unmotivated, based on the preceding scene. It also removes a lot of Ill’s sense of isolation that is so palpable through act two and act three, as Güllen spends the promised money and making it more likely they will have to kill him.
Another important and strange change happens in act three, in a conversation between Ill/Schill and the schoolteacher. Schill’s character is presented throughout the play as the moral compass who slowly becomes disillusioned with his ideals.
This interaction has a different nuance depending on the version. In the adaptation, the schoolteacher uses language that is far less self-condemning than in the translation. “Perhaps” he will join the townspeople in the murder of Schill; the schoolteacher in the translation states that he simply will. In addition to this, the phrase “…one day an old lady will come for us too…” (77) is cut in its entirety, removing the sense that, whatever Güllen buries, it will come back to haunt them. Valency turns Dürrenmatt’s play into more of a story about a town’s quick descent into evil.
In the 70 years since Der Besuch der Alten Dame premiered, it has had a plethora of adaptations from all around the world. In 1964, a film version was made starring Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn, in which the town does not kill Ill (in this version called Serge). His punishment for his crimes, rather, is having to continue living in a town that would have killed him; the town’s punishment is the guilt over knowing they would have killed him. The Senegalese film Hyenas from 1992 is more faithful to the events and characters of Dürrenmatt’s play but sets it in the village of Colobane in Senegal. There is even a musical version of The Visit, composed by Cander and Ebb, composers of classic musicals like Cabaret and Chicago. Across these adaptations, much like Valency’s, sometimes Durrenmatt’s characters and themes stay intact, and sometimes they don’t. Such is the nature of adaptation for art works that strike a chord within someone’s consciousness, no matter the time or place in which it happens.
Sources
- Dürrenmatt, Friedrich, and Maurice Valency. The Visit: A Play in Three Acts. Random House, 1958.
- Dürrenmatt, Friederick, and Patrick Bowles. The Visit: A Tragicomedy. Grove Press, 1990.
- “History – The Visit.” University of Maryland School of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, 25 Sept. 2019, thevisitumddramaturgy.wordpress.com/production-history/.
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