The Visitor March 6, 2009

Eric Emmanuel-Schmitt's play is set in Vienna, 1938. The Nazis have invaded Austria and are persecuting the Jews. Sigmund Freud is still confident in the future and refuses to leave. But on this April evening, the Gestapo arrest his daughter Anna and take her for questioning. Freud remains alone and desperate when, suddenly, a stranger enters through the window. The visitor, a frivolous and cynical dandy in a tuxedo and top hat, has some incredible things to say. Who is he? A mad man? A magician? Is this merely a dream? Or is he really as he claims, God in person? Like Freud himself, each of us will have to decide the answer in the course of this serious and crazy evening.