THE VISIT. To 2 April.

Dundee

THE VISIT
by Friedrich Durrenmatt translated by Maurice Valency adapted by Peter Arnott

Dundee Rep Theatre To 2 April 2005
Tue-Sat 7.45pm Mat 26 March 2.30pm
Audio-described March 26 2.3pm (+touch tour 1.45pm)
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

TICKETS: 01382 223530
www.dundeerep.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 March

Another blazing summit for Dundee's Ensemble - the bright beacon of Scottish theatre.Swiss writer Friedrich Durrenmatt's 1956 play explores the idea that 'goodness' is malleable when the price is right and the force bending it strong enough. The idea's encapsulated in 2 words by Clarrie (Anne Louise, on top form with the calm of 100% certainty and zero emotion) when the people of her impoverished home town initially reject her bounty because of the condition she puts on using her billions to revive the place, "I'll wait".

Dundee's publicity variously ascribes the adaptation to Maurice Valency and Peter Arnott but the makeover's surely the Scottish writer's work, with an updating that has Robert Patterson's civic leader giving a New Labour gloss to his moral vacuum by resorting to "social inclusion" as the all-purpose feelgood term.

And a credit-boom, debt-laden society is displayed on the shelves of victim-in-waiting Freddie's shop, burgeoning with increasingly expensive stock as he recoils from the spending that can only be repaid with Clarrie's money.

Martin Danziger's production incorporates elements of comedy, thriller and horror. At times laid-back comic enjoyment of a scene loosens the overall pulse which gives the action its sense of increasing inevitability. The key moment of Freddie's failure to leave by bus goes for little, though it should be an even starker contrast now Clarrie arrives by air rather than rail as in Durrenmatt.

But the cruelty is often sharp, with Clarrie's blinded, degendered victims scurrying round the stage with white canes before sitting to be petted like dogs, or playing cards with each other. Clarrie's mission becomes an ultimate - as well as ultimatum - of capitalism.

She is no longer flesh-and-blood, her gorgeous hair's a wig, abandoned once the people are taken in by her. Tossing off the names in her updated A-list celeb-guest list with casual abandon she contrasts the town's desperate clinging to myths of past links with the famous (like the Elvis Presley urinal).

And the woman seking revenge against the lover who abandoned her has, 9 husbands later, given up men, to judge by the closeness to her obsequious secretary, played with glacial elegance by Emily Winter.

Dundee's cast plays with true ensemble spirit while producing sharply-defined images of run-down pillars of society, be it John Buick's leather-jacketed cleric-for-all-seasons, Irene Macdougall's frumpy teacher who insists on accommodating the moral dimension to her new spending pattern or Keith Fleming's rough-edged policeman.

In contrast, Gerry Mulgrew's Freddie grows increasingly distressed in hair, clothes and manner especially after the second act opening shows the others all gathered on high at one of Clarrie's bashes. From there it's only a matter of time for moral equivocation before they gather round him for a coup de grace carried out with banality and denial of responsibility; shopping bags over their heads, so each can deny it was their hands that did for Freddie.

The updatings may bring the laughter of recognition but they also carry the chill of an immediacy that questions easy assumptions about human nature.

Hornpipe: John Buick
Mackie: Ewan Donald
Buckie: Keith Fleming
Waldo: David Ireland
Bulger: Irene Macdougall
Baldo: David Mackay
Freddie: Gerry Mulgrew
Doofus: Robert Paterson
Clarrie: Ann Louise Ross
Tilda: Anne Marie Timmoney
Miss Flight: Emily Winter
Effie: Samantha Young

Director: Martin Danziger
Designer/Costume: Kenny Miller
Lighting: Simon Wilkinson
Musical Director: Paddy Cuneen

2005-03-26 10:59:24