THE Brown Paper Bag Theatre Company is currently rehearsing for "The Visit", its follow up to last January's "Picture Of Dorian Gray".

"The Visit" is Friedrich Durrenmatt's masterpiece written in 1956, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and it is set in the town of Guellen, nominally in Switzerland, though it could stand in for any run-down industrial town which has known better times.

A chorus of Guelleners with Madame Zachanassian (Beth Robson) and Husband IX (Mike Felstead).
A chorus of Guelleners with Madame Zachanassian (Beth Robson) and Husband IX (Mike Felstead). (Crediton Arts Centre)

The difference in Guellen revolves around a shameful episode in the long past, an episode that comes back to haunt them in a very dark and unexpected way.

"The Visit" shows us that the past is never really gone or forgotten, that it affects lives for years to come.

Brown Paper Bag present this modern classic in a new version, brought to life by a cast of 19 actors and the creative team which enlivened the recent Shakespeare productions "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Much Ado About Nothing".

Director is Jack Robson, designer Tim Salter, and costume designer, Lindy Yellowlees.

Darkly comic, shocking, farcical and pathetically tragic in turns, it is a play that asks questions for our lives in the 21st Century.

How does poverty and hardship challenge a society's sense of morality?

At what point does survival turn into greed?

Can a community really escape retribution for evil committed in its name?

"The Visit" will be performed from Wednesday, January 24 to Saturday, January 28 at Crediton Arts Centre.

Tickets, at £12/£10 each, are already selling fast, and are available from the Arts Centre on 01363 773260 or online from: www.ticketsource.co.uk/creditonartscentre .