"The Visit" Opens Tonight

Fredrich Duerrenmatt’s The Visit opens tonight at the UW Oshkosh Fredric March Theatre.

The Visit will run at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9-11 and 16-18, and 2 p.m. Feb. 12 and 19 in the 500-seat theatre.

Ticket prices are $10, $8 for seniors and $3 for UW-Oshkosh students with university identification. The Box Office is open from noon to 2 p.m. on weekdays and 5-7 p.m. the evening of the performances. The box office will open one-hour before Sunday performances. For more information, call the box office at (920) 424 4417.

I have a couple of small parts in this play (a waiter in Act I, part of a group of gun-toting townsmen in Act II, and an air-headed cameraman in Act III). Only my cameraman part has any lines, and I guess the air-headedness dictates that all I have to do is act naturally.

The UW Oshkosh Theatre faculty and production staff uphold Broadway quality standards in their work. I was chair of the Department of Communication when Theatre was an area within the department and, while I attended most of the shows and had high regard for what they do, the experience of actually working on a production has been awe-inspiring.

Director Richard Kalinoski, himself an award winning playwright most known for the spectacular "Beast on the Moon," managed to get the most out his large cast of UW Oshkosh student performers. Maria Bartholdi, in the role of the justice seeking Madame Claire Zachanassian, is a stunning mixture of Lady Macbeth, Alexis Carrington, and a touch of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Bryan Vandehey as Anton Schill, a man against whom Zachanassian seeks revenge and comes to accept his fate, plays the part with a maturity and range of emotion that I think is rare for a young actor.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle taught us that great drama features a believeable plot, characters with whom the audience can identify, provocative ideas and language, appropriate music, and visual spectacle. Under Kalinoski's direction, the Aristotleian categories shine in Duerrenmatt’s troubling story of a small town willing to commit a crime for financial return.

"The Visit" takes place in a poor town called "Gullen," which apparently is Swiss for "excrement." In the play the police, city hall, the clergy, the town council, and the educators all prove to be self-centered, weak, and untrustworthy. At first shocked and appalled by Zachanassian's offer to financially bail out the city in return for the life of Anton Schill, a man slated to be their next mayor (called a burgomaster in the play), they soon find themselves having a change of heart as credit allowing them to purchase new shoes and other material things is extended. A town once oppressed by poverty is now oppressed by false riches. Schill comes to believe that death may represent the only hope for freedom.

Duerrenmatt wrote the play in the mid 1950s and it was first performed at the March Theatre 35 years ago, but its themes have an almost eerie application to today. My hope is that audience members will see that "Gullenesque" side to their own town and perhaps reflect on their own contributions to the excrement.

The Visit has been reprised at the March Theatre in celebration of the Theatre program attaining Department status. I'm honored and thrilled to be part of the celebration, and I offer my most sincere congratulations to the entire Theatre Department faculty, staff, and students.