INTENSE "DEATH AND THE MAIDEN"

INTENSE "DEATH AND THE MAIDEN"

Many painfully bitter conflicts have no resolution, no “closure” as people like to say these days. Those in pain are left to get over it however they can.

Many times this is the best answer. Always trading an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth can quickly lead a vengeful society into spiraling destruction. 

You don’t have to look far for some very tragic examples.

Live Theatre Workshop is providing a timely reminder of this unfortunate truth in its gripping production of Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman’s 1991 work “Death and the Maiden” directed by Christopher Wilken.

As the LTW program notes sadly indicate, Dorfman told the Guardian newspaper last October “I can’t help but ask if 20 years from now I will be writing this phrase all over again: this story happened yesterday, but it could well be today.”

Dorfman’s own sorrowful experiences occurred during the regime of Augusto Pinochet in the mid-1980s. Dorfman came out of exile when Chile returned to democracy in 1990. “Death and the Maiden” has become an enduring dramatization of truth’s fragile edges and the twisting flexibility of democratic ideals.

As one LTW theater patron put it after the performance, “This isn’t a relaxing play. But it is important.”

Cynthia Jeffery as Paulina has the most demanding presence in a particularly fine cast that includes Cliff Madison and Keith Wick.  Paulina is living a comfortably upscale life as the wife of Gerardo (Madison), a prominent lawyer in the newly democratic regime of an unnamed South American country.

Their relationship seems a little troubled, but everything accelerates with the arrival of Roberto (Wick). These days he is a caring doctor, but previously he had a prominent role in the former autocratic regime which democracy has replaced.

Now all the members of the old power structure are eager to prove they are 100 percent behind the new democracy. In fact, they work at giving the impression they were always closet democrats.

This faux sincerity quickly becomes a major factor when Paulina becomes convinced Roberto is the man who tortured and raped her many times under the guise of questioning her. During these horrible incidents, Roberto would always play a recording of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden.” He felt the music made his prison victims more calm.

As it turns out, Roberto has a cassette recording of “Death and the Maiden” in his car. Since Paulina was always blindfolded, she insists this man’s tone of voice, his scent and the feel of his skin are even more convincing evidence of his guilt.

But Gerardo the husband is not so convinced. Roberto is also a powerful man in the new government. If Paulina is wrong, Gerardo would be ruined.

So Gerardo is caught in the middle. No matter whose side he takes, there will be some dire consequences.

The playwright, however, has more in mind than just writing a political murder mystery. The situational ethics, the responsibilities of power, the legal sense of truth all become weighty issues worth serious discussion after the play.

As that theater patron said, “It is important.”

“Death and the Maiden” continues in performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, through April 22 at Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd. Tickets are $18, with discounts available. For details and reservations, 327-4242, or visit www.livetheatreworkshop.org