(Update) Nicolas Stemann on his version of 'der Besuch' at the Holland Festival: 'We do take such women very seriously these days.' #HF22

Update 11 May 2022

The comparison with the Derksen affair cited in this article no longer holds true as of this date, as the TV personality has been restored to full glory by the television station that previously 'cancelled' him. From Monday 16 May, he will return to his old role as a 'grumpy old man' in Today Inside. See the link here.

An old lady returns to the village of her youth after decades to take revenge on the man who knocked her up and rejected her back then. He is now mayor of that same village, and she is a billionaire. She promises to make the village wealthy, on one condition: that the population puts to death the man who humiliated her. Question is: will the population opt for the money, and thus the death of their mayor?

In the 1950s, the choice was clear: the old woman's moral standards were a little too high and the population was too greedy for things to end without bloodshed. Now things are different.

Dürrenmatt wrote a bizarre vaudeville

65 years ago, Swiss Friedrich Dürrenmatt penned this story in the form of a vaudeville-like play. Since then, this 'Visit of the Old Lady' became a classic in Swiss - and German - theatre. Every schoolgirl in the German-speaking world can dream of it. The Holland Festival is showing a refreshed version of 'Der Besuch', created by German director Nicolas Stemann, on 10, 11 and 12 June this year.

I spoke to the playwright, who is currently artistic director of Schauspielhaus Zurich, about it back in early March this year, and saw the performance later in Zurich, so that I could prepare myself for this rather far-reaching adaptation of this German evergreen. Since the premiere, last year, and since that interview in March, and my visit to Zurich, all sorts of things have happened. That makes this piece need some additional commentary.

Derksen affair makes clear the world is different

Not least, I am referring to the 'affair' surrounding TV icon Johan Derksen. The personification of the 'you can't say anything anymore' sentiment, prevalent among a certain section of the population, confessed to violating a drunken woman 50 years ago, "when that was still common, but you can't get away with it now", to stand up for another icon accused of beating his partner K.O.

Noted. Within a week, Derksen disappeared from the tube because of this slip and the public prosecutor is looking for the - now old - lady who was violated with a candle in an unconscious state at the time by the now former footballer. The parallel with Dürrenmatt's play is striking, but the playwright's approach to the subject is very different from how our society now deals with a man like Derksen.

You could say that the villagers would not need a billion now to sideline the mayor for his youthful sin.

Victims were never seriously heard

So times change, and topicality proves elusive. Another point is that the play 'Het bezoek van de oude dame' is not a well-known classic in the Netherlands. In this day and age, Stemann's adaptation of it is more likely to strike us as a topical commentary on affairs like those surrounding Derksen, Johnny de Mol and Jan Fabre, men who have been exposed as perpetrators with behaviour that was tolerated for years because the victims were never seriously heard. The connection with current affairs is now mostly a striking coincidence.

As associate artist of the Holland Festival, why did you choose to come to the Netherlands with this particular piece?

'I had actually assumed that the play would be more well-known here. My partner is Dutch, so my children are half Dutch, half German, and my sister-in-law even told me that she had played in it in high school, so I suspected it had the same position here as in Germany, but it turns out not to be so.'

Two actors play 35 roles

In Switzerland, where this play has acquired sacred status, his adaptation was notable. Originally, it is a farce with 35 roles for villagers and notables and a rather caricatured old lady who clearly does not enjoy sympathy. Stemann does things differently. All roles are played by two - otherwise excellent - actors on an empty stage, with a solid sound set by a female DJ. Who links to the decline of Europe with lyrics over the music.

You play the play almost in its entirety, but all 30 roles are played by two actors. How do you come up with that?

'I'm quite surprised that I got away with it in Zurich. It's where it was first played 65 years ago, it's also the centenary of the writer Dürrenmatt's birth, it's a big anniversary of national pride. So I am slaughtering the sacred cow, even if that is not my intention. In the end, the unrest wasn't too bad and the Zurich audience is mostly enthusiastic.'

In the play, the old lady is an angry caricature, while the man who was once the perpetrator of her humiliation is the good guy. That is quite difficult to maintain in these days of MeToo and BLM. We, because we now realise that that past has every right to harass and punish the present. 

'It is, even in the original play, not as very black and white as you are outlining now. What it does is that the man gets all the space he needs to tell his story. We see his psychological development, and so people can recognise more in him. She remains a bizarre image of an old woman.'

Protecting a play from its writer

'Sometimes you have to protect a play from the author's intentions. Sometimes plays turn out richer because time has passed since they were made. In this play, that happens.'

'If you look at the subject matter now, it is no longer so easy to pinpoint. It is clear that Dürrenmatt is closer to the old white man, than to the avenging, oppressed lady. But that is perhaps the least interesting part of the whole play.'

'Now the interesting question is how seriously we should take the woman's past in this play written as a farce. It is easy to say she is wrong to want to live on alone for the ultimate revenge for what was done to her. So much violence is wrong, of course, but you could also argue that she has some right to it. The play itself doesn't make that clear because she is such a grotesque, farcical character.'

Now it is much deeper than then

'But now, with Metoo, it is very common for women to come forward to demand reparations for something that happened a very long time ago. We do take such women very seriously these days and also listen to them. We think their demand is justified. In the 1950s, it was not common to listen to old ladies who told you that in their youth they had been treated badly.'

'So we are not changing anything about the text, but in the 65 years since the first performance, the world has changed, and that is also in the play, although Dürrenmatt could not have known that. Now the play is much deeper and more layered than it was then.'

Good to know

Der besuch der Alte Dame can be seen in Amsterdam from 10 to 12 June. Information.