[photo credit: Pasadena Playhouse]
Guests using captions may ask to sit in view of a video screen showing text synchronized to the stage action. Audio description, heard on a listening device patrons can request, covers actions, costumes, scenery and other visual elements, and is available in every Orchestra-level seat. Patrons who want the pre-show notes should be seated 15 minutes before curtain.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s comedy, adapted by Maurice Valency and directed by Darko Tresnjak, stars Jefferson Mays and Melinda Page Hamilton. It runs 1 hour and 45 minutes with no intermission and includes light theatrical haze, flashing lights and prop guns.
Hamilton plays Claire Zachanassian, the world’s richest woman, who returns to her struggling hometown and offers to save it from ruin on one condition, according to the Playhouse’s description of the play. Mays plays Anton Schill, her former lover.
The production reunites Mays and Tresnjak, who worked together on “Amadeus” at the Playhouse last season, with Mays in the role of Salieri. According to Pasadena Weekly, Producing Artistic Director Danny Feldman asked Tresnjak whether there were other plays he wanted to direct for the company, and Feldman approved “The Visit.” The two men’s collaboration dates to a 1999 production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the newspaper reported.
Tresnjak told TheaterMania that he read the play as a teenager and directed it in college. “I’ve been waiting to do this play professionally for 40 years,” he said. Dürrenmatt’s play dates to 1956, and Valency’s adaptation was used for its 1958 Broadway premiere, Pasadena Weekly reported. Mays and Hamilton lead a 17-member cast, according to the newspaper.
Previews began Sept. 9, and the production opened Sept. 13, according to Pasadena Weekly. The final performances are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, according to the Playhouse’s ticketing site. A limited number of Pay What You Can tickets, starting at $10, are available for select performances on a first-come, first-served basis, the theater’s website states.
Tickets start at $40 at https://my.pasadenaplayhouse.org/3839/3869 or 626-356-7529. The theater is at 39 S. El Molino Ave. in Pasadena.
Sunday, Sept. 27, 2 p.m. Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. For more call (626) 356-7529 or visit https://my.pasadenaplayhouse.org/3839/3869. Tickets: Start at $40.
