Death and the Maiden at Sydney Theatre Company

Posted by Sas Lyon

“The truth and I’ll let you go. Then you’ll be as free as Cain after he killed his brother.”
Paulina

Sydney Theatre Company presents a Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company production DEATH AND THE MAIDEN by Ariel Dorfman.

The truth can kill.

Tonight, a stranger calls. For Paulina Salas, his voice triggers a memory she has long tried to suppress. Years ago, she was blindfolded, abducted and held as a political prisoner. She never saw her captors but she did hear them.

Ariel Dorfman’s award-winning play is a taut psychological thriller, both complex and captivating. For Paulina, reconciliation is an impossible compromise. For her husband, revenge is an intolerable injustice. Written in the wake of the Pinochet regime in Chile, Death and the Maiden puts the question: when the guilty have been made innocent, what are the innocent to become?

The play had its Australian premiere here at STC in 1992. Today, it resonates even more chillingly as the world watches dictatorships crumble and retribution reign.

Director Leticia Cáceres has made a mark with crisply wrought, determined productions. In this, she has exceptional actors to work with – Susie Porter (Puberty Blues) returns to STC as Paulina with Eugene Gilfedder (The Effect) as the man whose voice might be his undoing.

Duration: 1hr 30mins (no interval)
Warning: strong language, violent themes

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