Death And The Maiden - May 2012
The following article by Ariel Dorfman (playwright) was published 10/14/11 in "the guardian" Death and the Maiden's haunting relevance The play I wrote 20 years ago about Chile's torture and trauma has a painful, global relevance today It happened yesterday but it could well be today. A woman awaits the return of her husband as the sun goes down. The dictatorship that plagued her land has just fallen, and everything is uncertain. The woman is full of fear, gripped by a secret terror that she only shares with the man she loves. During the night and the day that follows she will have to confront that fear, she will bring to justice in her living room the doctor she believes is responsible for having tortured and raped her years ago. Her husband, a lawyer in charge of a commission investigating the deaths of thousands of dissidents under the previous regime, must defend the accused man because without the rule of law the transition to democracy will be compromised