DEATH AND THE MAIDEN Comes To The Centaur Theater 11/3-12/6

Death and the Maiden Directed by Gordon McCall
Starring: Wayne Burnett, Tania Kontoyanni, Neil Napier
November 3 - December 6

WINNER: Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play & London Time Out Award for Best Play of 1991.

Death and the Maiden was the winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and winner ofthe London Time Out Award for Best Play of 1991. Though fictional, this emotionally charged 20th centuryclassic thriller, set in an unnamed country that is probably Chile, deals with real events that take placeduring the transitional period from a long dictatorship to a democratic government. (During AugustoPinochet's regime, which began on September 11, 1973 and ended on March 11, 1990, an estimated 3,200 people were killed, 80,000 were incarcerated and 30,000 were subjected to torture, according tothe Rettig report - the official National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report.)

Paulina Escobar, a former political prisoner, is forced to confront demons from her past after herhusband, Gerardo, a lawyer working for a Truth and reconciliation committee, gets a flat tire and isdriven home by their distant neighbour, Dr. Miranda. Convinced that Miranda was part of the old fascistregime that tortured and raped her to Schubert's "Death And The Maiden" while blindfolded, she takeshim captive in order to extract a confession.

Meanwhile, her husband, is torn between his wife, with hersombre memory and psychological repressions, and the law. As the married couple seek out the truthabout the clouded past, tension mounts to a startling conclusion. Chilean playwright, novelist, essayist, journalist and human-rights activist, Ariel Dorfman was born in Argentina in 1942. He moved with his family to the United States and then settled in Chile in 1954, where he later attended and was a professor at the University of Chile. A supporter of Salvador Allende, he was forced into exile after the 1973 military coup, but now divides his time between Santiago and the Statessince the restoration of democracy in Chile in 1990.

He has been a professor at Duke University since1985 and is a regular contributor to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Nation. He is theauthor of How To Read Donald Duck, The Empire's Old Clothes, Widows, The Last Song of ManuelSendero, My House Is On Fire, Mascara, Last Waltz in Santiago and Other Poems of Exile andDisappearance, Some Write to the Future, and Hard Rain, as well as the award-winning plays Widowsand Reader.Directed by Centaur's Former Artistic and Executive Director, Gordon McCall, Death And The Maidenstars Wayne Burnett, Tania Kontoyanni, Neil Napier. The creative team includes Set Design by RussellJones, Costume Design by Susana Vera and Lighting Design by Spike Lyne. The team is supported bystage manager Wendy Rockburn, Assistant Stage Manager Stephanie Link, and Assistant DirectorGiovAnna Carruba

 

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