THE VISIT
THE VISIT, by Swiss playwright Friedrich Durrenmatt, is the most well-known play by one of the most important playwrights since the Second World War. Set in a small town that is in a deep economic depression, the townspeople await the visit of Claire Zachanassian, who was driven out of town as a young girl years ago because she was pregnant. Now the wealthiest person in the world who has just married her 8th husband, she returns to a town that desperately hopes her millions will save them. She, however, has a different agenda, returning with the mission to buy justice: she will offer the town her fortune in exchange for the life of the man who not only spurned her but rigged the public trial against her.
“In the fractious culture we find ourselves in today, the line between justice and revenge can get more and more thin. THE VISIT provides a chance to consider the complexities of that distinction, and does so in a very compelling and entertaining manner in this dark comedy,” says Artistic Director Wendy Knox.
ABOUT THE VENUE for THE VISIT: The Minnesota Transportation Museum is housed in the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul, a fully functional railroad roundhouse, one of the last of its kind in the country. During winter months, the Roundhouse is a functioning work area for Museum rolling stock, often with the volunteer workforce welding, grinding and sending sparks flying. Visitors taking the escorted shop tours are often amazed at the work being performed, commenting to docents and staff that they have “…never seen anything like it.” The building was erected by the Great Northern Railway in 1907, replacing another older roundhouse. The site has been used for rail transportation since the first railroad came to Minnesota in the 1860s. The Roundhouse and surrounding grounds are a near complete display of American Industrial history from the 19th century through the mid-20th century. The roundhouse is also home to the famous Northern Pacific Railway steam engine No. 2156, best known to many Twin Cities children from the 1960s and 1970s as Casey Jones‘ steam engine, from the popular children’s program.
