well, i had all kinds of (perfectly valid) arguments against this. the song "you know me"(?) is a bunch of women gossiping about her so they're unreliable. also, there is the interaction with the pastor (in the musical, the priest). the schoolmaster, the mayor, the priest are all structurally related and they all carry pretty much the same weight (with the mayor as the representative of the town having more gravitas) and they've all done her damage (granted, in the musical she mistakes the schoolmaster for his father or grandfather i can't remember which right now but it's the same idea.) in that part of the world at that time it is unlikely a young jewish girl would have had the kinds of interactions with a pastor or priest claire is responding to.
none the less ...
it is there. i can't believe i missed it but in the scene where claire speaks before the banquet i'm pretty sure she says her father was jewish and her mother was a gypsy. kander and ebb and/or mcnally added this. unless it is some other atrocity in the valency i've forgotten it isn't in any transition and i looked again in the german this morning and i don't think its' there. my german isn't great but it's good enough to find "der jude." besides, it would have jumped out at me the first time i ever read the play in a german literature in translation class about a hundred years ago. i've never seen the movie - is it in there?
they're completely within their rights to make this interpretation and, lord knows, it's understandable. it's impossible to discuss post-war literature in german about collective guilt without wondering what role the holocaust plays. in THE VISIT it's always been there lurking in the background. personally, i think it's more effective that way but these are the kinds of choices people make when adapting a work and i'm not going to fault them for it. though i think durrenmatt would have balked. see above.
i'm envious of you seeing it at WTF. i'd be kicking myself for not going but i would have had to give the tickets away even if i'd bought them. i was laid up with a sprain last week and i'm heading out of town this week. you seem familiar with the musical. i'd love to know what's been cut and what's been kept and what you think of the newest incarnation.
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