Death And The Maiden

By (author) Dorfman Ariel
Short description/annotation:

A woman seeks revenge when the man she believes to have been her torturer happens to re-enter her life.

Description:

A classic of 20th-century theatre, Ariel Dorfman''s Death and the Maiden ran for a year in the West End, was a hit on Broadway and was filmed by Roman Polanski starring Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver.

A woman seeks revenge when the man she believes to have been her torturer happens to re-enter her life.

Death and the Maiden was given a first reading at the Institute for Contemporary Art in London in November 1990. After a workshop production staged in Santiago, Chile, in March 1991, the play had its world premiere at the Royal Court Upstairs, London, in July 1991, transferring to the Main Stage at the Royal Court in October.

The play then transferred to the West End, at the Duke of York''s Theatre, in February 1992.

Death and the Maiden won the 1992 Olivier Award for Best New Play.

Review quote:

''A play for today, for the age of revenge, when dictatorships crumble right and left and the victims, the living dead, emerge from the shadows and present their accounts...''

Biographical note:
Ariel Dorfman, born in Argentina in 1942, is a Chilean citizen who was forced into exile after the 1973 coup that overthrew Salvador Allende and established General Pinochet as dictator. His numerous books have been translated into over twenty languages.