On the centenary of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s birth, SWI swissinfo.ch examines the global appeal of the Swiss dramatist's 1956 play ‘The Visit’, which made him famous and is still performed around the world. The universal plot of “The Visit” is relatively simple: Klärchen Wäscher, now the widowed billionaire Claire Zachanassian, returns to her home village of Güllen – a synonym for liquid manure, or slurry. She makes the villagers an offer: She will give them a huge sum of money in return for the death of Alfred Ill, who got her pregnant in her youth and then used trickery to deny his paternity and plunged her into misery. In the days after the arrival of the old lady, all resistance to her immoral offer crumbles – the prospect of wealth is too tempting. At the end the villagers kill Ill in front of the woman who ordered the murder. The drama is the tension between her offer and the murder: how selfish needs are prioritised, moral positions evaporate and scruples vanish. Friedrich...
