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The Visit
By Friedrich Durrenmatt
Adapted by Maurice Valency
Directed by Jennifer Leavitt Adams
Produced by Halcyon Theatre
At Steep Theatre
3902 N. Sheridan
Chicago, IL
Call 312-458-9170, tickets $15
Mondays through Wednesdays at 8 PM
Running time is 2 hours, 20 minutes with intermission
Through August 16, 2006
The Visit has its moments
Theatre veterans Tony and Jennifer Leavitt Adams formed Halcyon Theatre and their initial offering, The Visit, the 1956 Friedrich Durrenmatt satirical morality tale is an ambitious undertaking with a cast of 19 actors in a small storefront space.
The results were mixed on opening night with some players doing camp, so playing it straight and many shouting and screaming instead of projecting the emotions of a scene. This uneven play does have its moments. The script is solid and the satire works to give the piece a light tone that underscores the strong moral parable contained in Durrenmatt’s epic theatre play.
As an off-night affair (it plays Monday through Wednesday), The Visit is worth a look. The sheer ambition and pace keeps the work delivering enough satisfying moments to engage us.
Claire (Hilary Sanzel) returns to her village of Guillen as a billionaire after years of marrying wealth men. The town is in dire straits as industry and manufacturing plants have closed and the residents are becoming poor. Their hope is that during her visit, Claire will help the depressed town recover. Claire arrives and is willing to make a billion mark donation to the town and its citizens. Great news! However, she has set conditions: she wants justice for a wrong done to her by Anron Schill (Peter Esposito) causing her to leave Guillen and become a prostitute. Schill got her pregnant and bribed two men to testify that they also had sex with Claire thus exonerating Schill. Claire now wants justice by having Anton Schill killed in return for the billion marks.
The town folks like Anton Schill and reject Claire’s demands but they also believe that eventually she’ll eventually see that Guillen and its citizens are worthy of her help. They start living on credit in anticipation of getting Claire’s money. We see how good people can use situational ethics to rationalize their survival needs. Money corrupts and Claire sure knows how to use it to get her revenge. This cautionary tale is timeless.
The cast was all over the place with style—some were doing camp, so were serious and too many shouted and screamed. But the show has enough charm to be worthy. Hilary Sanzel’s Claire was commanding but she needs to show more of her hate toward Schill. Peter Esposito appeared a tad weak as Anton Schill. Once he relaxed, he was effective. Trey Maclin, as the Mayor, and Dan Kennedy, as the teacher, each were terrific.
The Visit needs a consistent tone that will have all the actors doing camp and over playing or everyone will play their characters straight. I’d also tone down the shouting so it doesn’t attack the audience. Basically, the production is decent off night fare.
Somewhat Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: July 24, 2006
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