DEATH AND THE MAIDEN by Ariel Dorfman, directed by Kurt Spenrath (Osculum). At the Jane Mallett Theatre (27 Front East). To May 15. $40-$50. 416-366-7723. See Listing. Rating: NN
Playwright Ariel Dorfman fled Chile in 1973 when fascist-leaning military despot Augusto Pinochet seized power in a violent coup. Returning in 1990 following the reinstatement of democracy, Dorfman wrote Death And The Maiden, about an unnamed nation’s struggle for normalcy after years of state-sanctioned violence.
Framed as a complicated revenge fantasy, the action focuses on a young married couple, Gerardo (Trevor Duplessis), the head of the new government’s truth and reconciliation committee, and Paulina (Yanet Candelario), a survivor of rape and torture at the hands of an old-government doctor.
Paulina creates a moral dilemma when she suddenly goes vigilante, holding a houseguest she is convinced is her former captor at gun-point and subjecting him to an impromptu trial with Gerardo desperately trying to defuse the situation.
Despite the gripping setup, this production never realizes the tension in Dorfman’s script. A subdued and oddly unvarying performance by Candelario doesn’t jive with her character, who is supposed to represent the irrational urge for reprisal that always frustrates these calculated attempts at peace. Duplessis’s performance is more dynamic, but comes across as laboured and forced – especially during his first scene with the doctor/houseguest (Juan Carlo Velis).
Kurt Spenrath’s direction could have benefited from some subtlety in act one (especially when Paulina dry-humps Gerardo on a wicker chair), and in the second act there are too many moments where the blocking suggests that Paulina could easily be disarmed by Gerardo.
The nail in the coffin is a heavy-handed and totally extraneous War On Terror audio montage tacked on to the conclusion. The connection is already very obvious, and the audio clips are just a smokescreen escape from the play’s difficult final moment, which Spenrath fails to capitalize on.[rssbreak]
