The Visit

At the broken-down train station in Guellen, a European town of unspecified nationality, five men in rags watch the trains pass. The commuters speed by instead of stopping. The fifth man is making a banner that reads: “Welcome Claire” (11). They discuss the imminent arrival of the millionairess, a Guellen native who they are hoping will provide an endowment to save their rotting town. The men lament about what the town once was—an arts center where Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent a night once in the local hotel, the Golden Apostle, where Johannes Brahms composed a quartet, and gunpowder was invented. The Mayor, Priest, Schoolmaster, and Alfred Ill enter, all in similarly ragged clothing, discussing the splashy welcome they’ve planned (within budget) for Claire Zachanassian, whose philanthropic donations have revived many towns. The Bailiff enters on a mission to repossess whatever he can find in the Town Hall to settle the town’s debt, but the Mayor insists that the Town Hall has nothing but an old typewriter. No one in the town pays taxes. Even the town’s History Museum has been sold off to America. The Bailiff notes, “The country’s booming […] but Guellen goes bankrupt.