The National Drama Theater of China's drama raises chilling questions about our potential to abandon ethical behavior out of greed for wealth.

"We never like to think the worst of ourselves. That's why it can be difficult to see a film or a play that makes us look at our shortcomings and analyze our constant struggle with our morals," said Wu Xiaojiang, director of the drama.

"It is like when the soap operas and comic TV serials have become people's dessert after dinner. They do not like a bitter or cruel story."

Wu said he hopes the story will be entertaining and thought-provoking.

"We do want you to watch this drama -- laughing loudly while being scared into a cold sweat, and then thinking what you would do if you were them."

Written by Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921-1990), The Visit, steeped in theatrical history, is the ultimate story of betrayed love, and it tantalizes with questions of justice and revenge, personal responsibility, and communal simplicity.

In the drama, Claire Zachanassian, a woman in her 60s and now the richest woman in the world, is coming back to Gullen, her hometown, for a visit. She left it in disgrace at 17, betrayed by her lover Anton Schell.

Through a series of shrewd marriages and fortuitous widowhood, she has become the world's wealthiest woman. Traveling with an entourage that includes two blind eunuchs and a couple of gum-chewing bouncers who carry her in a sedan chair, Claire has added flamboyance to her natural red-haired beauty.

Now Gullen's desperate economic condition creates the opportunity Claire has been awaiting. The townspeople have forgotten the disgrace that forced Claire to leave 45 years ago, pleading with her for financial help.

She swoops back, hauling a coffin, with a proposal: 1 billion dollars in exchange for the life of Schell, now the time-worn storekeeper and one of Gullen's most respected citizens.

It's payback time for his denial of responsibility for her pregnancy and his persuading of two friends to commit perjury in his paternity trial.

Serious playwright

Born in 1921 in Switzerland, Durrenmatt's father was a Protestant minister and his grandfather was a behind-the-scenes man in Swiss politics and a well-known satirist. These different threads helped shape the young playwright and thinker.

In 1941, he began studies at universities in Zurich and Bern, burying himself in literature and philosophy. In his writing, he always used the concept justice, pushing it to its extreme.

He thought that writers must look at life with a harsh merciless clarity. He was always reworking his writing, even years after it was written. He called it "re-educating" his work.

"The stage is always the author's teacher, and he can learn from it, he once said."

Durrenmatt's plays work on several levels: They are ferociously satirical (often hilarious in its black humor), and always include a morality tale and a deeply disturbing tragedy. The Visit, premiered in Zurich in 1956, and it was one of his most popular works.

His dramatic ingenuity and ironic sense of macabre humor permeate the work, making for an entertaining, provocative, and unsettling theatrical event.

"It is a sterling example of modern drama, depicting man as absurd in the face of death and utilizing a variety of theatrical effects from epic Theater, absurdist drama, and melodrama," said Ye Tingfang, professor with the Research Institute of Foreign Literature Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Ye has translated the story into Chinese.

Durrenmatt himself called this story "a tragic comedy." More than any other of his plays, this story of an old lady who returns home to wreak an exact and merciless vengeance on her former lover intimately joins comedy and tragedy to support each other in nearly every scene.

Actually this is not the first Chinese version of the drama, as the prestigious Beijing People's Art Theater staged it in 1982. But both the crew of the new production and the audience say it is very different.

"Twenty years ago, Chinese people might have no idea what 1 billion dollars meant to a person. But the influence of the drama has resounding relevance today," said Tang Sifu, veteran drama critic.

Actors also say the story has resonance today.

"Though the story was set in Europe some half a century ago, Gullen, the small town, could be in every corner in the world including China," said Niu Piao who acts as the mayor of Gullen.

"It questions how much humanity is lost as we get caught in consumerism. When I performed the mayor I was deeply frightened what would I do if I were really the mayor."

The townsfolk's response to the deal is the meat of Durrenmatt's play.

The townspeople, who make up a kind of composite representation of society itself, are first appalled by Claire's offer as they count Schell as a valuable member of their community, and they decline the offer. But she is patient enough to settle into the local hotel and tell them: "I can wait."

As time goes on, however, the prospect of so much money entices them, and they begin to buy on credit, not considering the consequences of their actions.

The mayor, a schoolmaster, a priest and a doctor set about preparing a tribute to Claire -- remembering fondly how good she was to the people of the town, but quite forgetting how despised she was when she lived among them.

Schell panics and goes for help to his family, the government (the mayor), the law (the police chief) and the church (the minister). But he is rebuffed at every turn. Even the teacher, representing intellectualism, sees what is happening but is too weak to fight it.

Talented crew

This new version tries to keep today's audience as involved as possible with the actors.

"In The Visit, Durrenmatt tempts us to attribute blame for the evils suffered by the play's characters," said Wu.

"We always try to make someone 'accountable' for hurt, pain, and loss, but Durrenmatt will not allow us to pass off responsibility onto some scapegoat. He forces us along with the characters in the play to face our own participation in the cruelty man inflicts on his fellow human beings."

The show will prove to test the extremes of emotion and the audience, the actors add.

"This is not a pleasant experience, nor is it intended to be. But the Theater has always been at its best when it challenges its audience rather than placates it with charming diversion," added Han Tongsheng, who is starring as Schell.

Besides Wu, an extraordinary team of talented artists have been assembled to accomplish the production. Leading the cast are veteran drama actress Feng Xianzhen as Claire Zachanassian and actor Han Tongsheng as Anton Schell.

Feng plays Claire as a woman hell-bent on revenge. Her facial expression, voice and movement are all perfection and she commands the stage every minute she is on.

"Claire is a difficult and complicated role. I do not think she is an evil woman, but a 'lovely' troublemaker," said Feng. "She is scorned, naive, outspoken and misses the first love of her life," she said.

Han as the beaten and aging Anton is also good. He creates a character for whom we can sympathize, even as we hate him for his youthful misdeeds.

Han exudes the charm of a simple man who took the expedient route when his life came to a fork in the road many years before. His grappling with the stunning reality he now faces is genuinely human in Han's portrayal.

"Schell is every inch the shopkeeper on the surface, but lurking underneath is an ability to be a destructive cutthroat," said Han.

"I have played over 40 roles but none of them made me so uncertain as Schell does. I denied my portrayal almost every time in rehearsal."

(China Daily July 3, 2002)