The Visit
National Theatre, London

The Swiss writer, Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-90), the son of a pastor, continued the family business through novels and plays in the form of challenging parables.

A detective novella, The Pledge (1958) – the basis for Sean Penn’s compelling 2001 movie starring Jack Nicholson – has a cop trying to catch a paedophile killer by using the young daughter of his girlfriend as bait in a trap.

Whether the right result can ever excuse the wrong action is also explored in The Visit (1956), a play that starts with the elderly Claire returning to the depressed German home town she left as a poor girl with a dubious reputation. Now, having become through her wits and seven lucrative marriages one of the world’s richest women, she pledges a huge cheque to rebuild the community, although this largesse will depend on the death of Alfred, a local who once grievously mistreated her.