Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden is an enigmatic play that first mesmerised audiences at London’s Royal Court in 1991 and has since seen several notable revivals and a film adaptation. This week producer Siobhan Noble brings it to Liverpool’s intimate Hope Street Theatre under the forensically focused direction of Margaret Connell.
It is a famously enigmatic work, in which we learn that
Paulina Escobar is rebuilding her life, having been previously raped by captors
during a long period of dictatorship in her unnamed home country. She never saw
her attacker’s face but, when her husband Gerardo receives a visit from a
doctor who helped him at the roadside, she recognises the voice.
Paulina goes on to restrain the stranger, Roberto Miranda,
in an effort to extract a confession from him. But when the confession comes is
it the truth or just written to secure his release? The success of the piece
rests in keeping us guessing as to whether Miranda is the actual perpetrator of
the crime, and the impartial stance of Gerardo, who is a lawyer, helps to
remind us that his guilt is never fully established. We are left questioning a
gamut of moral and emotional rights and wrongs, all of which are sadly all too
relevant in our increasingly fractured society.
Hope Street’s small performance space heightens the
claustrophobic nature of the narrative, as the action plays out on Rebecca
McGrory’s asymmetric set, in which we see the living room and garden of the
Escobars’ home. Phil Perez gives a solid reading of Gerardo, trying in vain to control
the emotional temperature of the situation. Pete Cuffe is Roberto, who has the
challenge of delivering much of his performance bound and gagged, and his
ability to convey everything from mortal fear to plain exasperation with facial
gestures alone is remarkable.
But it is Emma Bird who takes the laurels in this production
for her simmering portrayal of Paulina. From her initial terror in recognising
the doctor’s voice to despair as she tries to get her husband on side, Bird is
a mesmerising presence on stage. In an emotionally draining performance she
never allows her character’s tension to relax for a moment.
Music and sound design by Max Wilson maintain the atmosphere
across scene breaks, with the passage of time reinforced by Peter Mitchelson’s
colour-saturated lighting.
There are very few moments where Connell’s direction fails
to maintain the pace, and her fascinating theatrical twist in the closing scene
leaves us in the audience taking a long hard look at ourselves.
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| Death and the Maiden - picture (c) Andrew AB Photography |
Death and the Maiden is at Hope Street Theatre until 14th
September.
This review was originally written for and published by Good News Liverpool
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