Claire Zachanassian is rich. Very rich. When she visits her debt-ridden hometown after an absence of many years, she offers to shower great wealth on its residents. The catch? The offer comes with a terrible price. Ringing denials meet Claire’s request but gradually moral apathy, silence and greed lead the townspeople to meet Claire’s terms and murder one of their own.

Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt published The Visit (Der Besuch der alten Dame) in 1956, after years of reflection about WW II. Dürrenmatt and many of his peers disparaged their homeland’s neutral stance during the war, recognizing that this, too, came at a cost. In The Visit he makes clear the dangers of corruption, self-protection and refusing to take a stance.