Death and the Maiden (Spanish: La muerte y la doncella) is a 1990 play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. Set in an unspecified country that has recently transitioned from a long dictatorship to a democratic government, it depicts the conflict between a former political prisoner, a doctor who may have tortured her, and her husband who is a lawyer and a member of the investigation commission of the new government. The play was translated into English by the author.
The world premiere was performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 9 July 1991, directed by Lindsay Posner. In 1994, the play was adapted into a film of the same name, directed by Roman Polanski and starring Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley.
BackgroundDorfman had worked as a cultural advisor to Chilean President Salvador Allende during his term in office. After the CIA-supported coup d'état in 1973 and the establishment of Augusto Pinochet's military junta, Dorfman was forced into exile. Pinochet's dictatorship embarked on a campaign of political repression and censorship, with an estimate of 32,000 people tortured, including 3,400 cases of sexual abuse of women.[1] The military dictatorship ended in 1990 and was replaced by a democratic government over a transition period of two years, during which the National Commission of Truth and Reconciliation was formed to investigate human rights abuses occurring during the dictatorship.[2]
Dorfman identified "the stark, painful Chilean transition to democracy" as the play's central theme, and in response to the play's mixed reception in Chile, stated that people "found it not to be allegorical at all, but realistic, and found themselves hurt or wounded by the brutality with which I show their lives".[3]
SynopsisPaulina Salas is a former political prisoner from an unnamed Latin American country who was raped by her captors, including a sadistic doctor whose face she never saw. During her torture, the doctor played Schubert's String Quartet No. 14, subtitled Death and the Maiden.
Years later, after the repressive regime has fallen, Paulina lives in an isolated country house with her husband, Gerardo Escobar. When Gerardo returns home from a visit to the president, he gets a flat tire and is helped by a stranger named Dr. Miranda. Later that night, Dr. Miranda returns and Paulina recognizes his voice and mannerism as that of her rapist. She takes him captive in order to put him on trial and extract a confession from him.
Gerardo acts as Dr. Miranda's lawyer and attempts to save his life, but after hearing the full story of Paulina's captivity, he formulates a confession with Dr. Miranda based on the specific details Paulina shared with him. Paulina records the entire confession and has Dr. Miranda sign it. She then sends Gerardo to get Dr. Miranda's car so he can go home. While they are alone for the last time, Paulina accuses Dr. Miranda of being unrepentant and guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. She shares that she purposely altered small details of her story when sharing it with Gerardo, and Dr. Miranda corrected those details in his own confession. Although Dr. Miranda denies this, Paulina is completely convinced of his guilt and prepares to execute him.
The play then skips forward in time, and the audience sees Paulina and Gerardo attending a concert. It is never revealed whether Paulina ultimately killed Dr. Miranda. As the concert orchestra begins to play Schubert's Death and the Maiden, Paulina sees Dr. Miranda across the room cast in a "phantasmagoric" light, and the audience is left to wonder whether he is truly there or only in Paulina's mind.
Characters- Paulina Salas – thirty-eight years old
- Gerardo Escobar – her husband, a lawyer, around forty-five
- Roberto Miranda – a doctor, around fifty
The world premiere was performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 9 July 1991, directed by Lindsay Posner. It had one reading and one workshop production prior to its world premiere.
Death and the Maiden had a reading at the Institute for Contemporary Art in London on 30 November 1990:
- Paulina – Penelope Wilton
- Gerardo – Michael Maloney
- Roberto – Jonathan Hyde
- Directed by Peter James
A workshop production was staged and opened in Santiago, Chile, on 10 March 1991:
- Paulina – Maria Elena Duvauchelle
- Gerardo – Hugo Medina
- Roberto – Tito Bustamante
- Directed by Ana Reeves
Death and the Maiden had its world premiere at The Royal Court Upstairs on 9 July 1991:
- Paulina – Juliet Stevenson
- Gerardo – Bill Paterson
- Roberto – Michael Byrne
- Directed by Lindsay Posner
With the same cast and director, it transferred to the Mainstage at The Royal Court on 4 November 1991.
In February 1992 it transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre, with a new cast:
- Paulina – Geraldine James
- Gerardo – Paul Freeman
- Roberto – Michael Byrne
- Directed by Lindsay Posner
From August 1992, this cast was replaced, in the same theatre, by:
- Paulina – Penny Downie
- Gerardo – Danny Webb
- Roberto – Hugh Ross
- Directed by Lindsay Posner
The American Broadway premiere of Death and the Maiden opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 17 March 1992, produced by Roger Berlind, Gladys Nederlander and Frederick Zollo, in association with Thom Mount and Bonnie Timmermann:
- Paulina – Glenn Close
- Gerardo – Richard Dreyfuss
- Roberto – Gene Hackman
- Directed by Mike Nichols
The Australian premiere production of Death and the Maiden took place on 16 December 1992.
- Paulina – Helen Morse
- Gerardo – John Gaden
- Roberto – Frank Gallacher
- Directed by Neil Armfield
The Indian premiere of Death and the Maiden (in Hindi translation by Shalini Vatsa) opened at the India Habitat Centre New Delhi on 17 February 2002, produced by Asmita Theatre.
Death and the Maiden returned to London's West End in 2011 at the Harold Pinter Theatre.
- Paulina – Thandiwe Newton
- Gerardo – Tom Goodman-Hill
- Roberto – Anthony Calf
- Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Death and the Maiden was performed in Iran on 4 November 2015.
- Paulina – Nazanin Khoshnood
- Gerardo – Jafar Del Del
- Roberto – Mohammad Babaea
- Directed by Mohsen Sadeghian
In 2015, Death and the Maiden was staged as a co-production between the Melbourne Theatre Company (18 July – 22 August) and the Sydney Theatre Company (2 September – 17 October). Susie Porter played Paulina with Eugene Gilfedder as the man whose voice might be his undoing.
On 22 March 2024, Death and the Maiden was staged at the Uganda National Cultural Centre (Uganda National Theatre). It was the first theatrical production by Railroad Pictures, a company that had long been invested mainly in film.[1]
- Paulina – Namara Jolly
- Gerardo 1 – Kyobe Jerom
- Gerardo 2 – Busingye Emmanuel
- Roberto – Timosewo Baguma
- Director – Timosewo Baguma
In 1994, Roman Polanski directed a film adaptation of the work, starring Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley and Stuart Wilson.
OperaAn opera based on the play has been composed by Jonas Forssell with the libretto by Ariel Dorfman. The world premiere was staged at the Malmö Opera on 20 September 2008.
Awards and nominations- 1992 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play
- ^ "THE SERIES OF REPARATIONS PROGRAMS IN CHILE" (PDF). Parliamentary Monitoring Group.
- ^ Vasallo, Mark (2002). "Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: General Considerations and a Critical Comparison of the Commissions of Chile and El Salvador". The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review. 33 (1): 153–182. ISSN 0884-1756. JSTOR 40176564.
- ^ Berman, Jenifer. "Ariel Dorfman". BOMB Magazine. Winter 1995. Retrieved 27 February 2026.
- Dorfman, Ariel (1991). Death and the Maiden (First ed.). London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 978-1-85459-175-3.
- Death and the Maiden at the Internet Broadway Database
- Death and the Maiden (1992 production) at the Internet Broadway Database
- Death and the Mai
- den at UNCC, Uganda National Theatre.
