Death & The Maiden

Straight off the back of the wonderful production of Simon Stephens' Birdland, Leticia Cáceres directs Death And The Maiden by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. The play is set in an unnamed country dealing with the trauma of an ousted dictatorship. Paulina (Susie Porter) and Gerardo (Steve Mouzakis) are a couple with direct involvement in these events. Gerardo has just accepted a position to investigate the crimes committed by the previous regime. Paulina was tortured and raped by a sadistic doctor during her time as a political prisoner. Paulina believes that a visitor (Eugene Gilfedder), brought to the house by Gerardo, possesses the same voice as her torturer from all those years ago. So begins an ad hoc trial in which Paulina is judge, jury and potential executioner. Is this really the man who abused Paulina or is this an outburst of her paranoia? The play asks how people and nations are forced to deal with trauma and how justice can be realised. The writing is powerful, but the actors are constrained by having to work within a restrictive set of three identical, awkwardly sized revolving rooms and this rarely allows the tension of the production to be maintained.