As we take our seats in the Te Whaea auditorium, the cast is slowly donning shabby grey costumes in the strip between a sketched backdrop suggesting a dilapidated town (scenic art by Sassy Shepheard) and a long run of rostra. We wait … and eventually they wait too, while someone paints a ‘Welcome’ banner. We share the sense of anticipation.

The bell and train whistle wielded by Station Master (Leo Maggs) mark the start of Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1956 classic, The Visit, co-directed by Danny Mulheron and Miranda Manasiadis. This Toi Whakaari graduation play complements the very recent American work, The Wolves.

The once-prosperous town of Güllen is now a place the fast trains pass by – until Madame Claire Zachanassian (Skyla Love), the distinguished billionaire guest they are expecting, stops The Flying Dutchman in its tracks in order to alight with her entourage: Chief Justice-turned-Butler, Bobby (Matè Lagae), and the blind servants Lobby (Conan Hayes) and Kobby (Kawakawa Fox-Reo). She also brings a coffin.

Mme Claire’ jet-black frock and feathered shoulders, and her staff’s orange attire, make the townsfolk’s greyness seem even more drab, despite their excitement. A limp resulting from a near-death experience only makes her even more exotic.

It quickly emerges this is a return to her roots for Mme Claire, who grew up in Güllen as Clara Wäscher, the daughter of a carpenter, and left when she was 17. Her first love, Anton Schill (Mosese Vea’ila), is now the local shopkeeper. Will the spark of their adolescent passion be reignited? Is this why she has returned?

The Burgomeister (Anthony Crum), Pastor (Hannah Lynch), Doctor (Alice May Connolly), Teacher (Andrew Eddey) and Policeman (Chris Alosio) are intent on getting Anton to capitalise on Clara’s apparent love for him to secure her financial support to revitalise the town – indeed to save it from oblivion.

Slowly and inexorably layers of memory are peeled away until the true story of what drove Clara from Güllen, and how she has made her billions since, is revealed. No spoilers, except to say what has hitherto been seen as a story of monstrous vengeance in the quest for justice now resonates with the #timesup movement.

While many previous productions have been star vehicles for the lead actresses, this Clara resists the temptation to spit venom. She states her case and sits back to watch what the townsfolk do – giving each of us the opportunity to interrogate our own moral values: what would I do, honestly, given the choice they face?

It starts with people acquiring new items of clothing on tic, splendidly signified by splashes of bright yellow. They circle like the birds of prey Clara’s garb suggests – but of course due process must be followed. A town meeting, to be exact. A democratic vote. A judicious spin on the result.  

While the characterisations are strong and clear, the satire is not over-played. Real feelings and rationalisations are at the core of everyone’s changing behaviours. We cannot observe and complacently console ourselves that that was how the world was then. If anything it is even more so now.  

This revisiting of The Visit is a timely opportunity for us to test ourselves. 

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