Entertainment
27 June, 2025
High stakes psycho thriller
FROM the moment the lights dim at The Rondo Theatre, ‘Death and the Maiden’ draws you into a high-stakes psychological thriller charged with trauma, moral ambiguity and the uneasy pursuit of justice.
Ariel Dorfman’s 1990 Olivier-award-winning, critically acclaimed thriller arrives in Cairns tonight and director Matt O’Connor’s stripped-back staging refuses to let us look away.
Set in a coastal house in an emerging democracy, the story pitches trauma-scarred Paulina (Chelsea Hayward) against Dr Roberto Miranda (Mark Chivers), the genial stranger she believes tortured and raped her under the former regime. Caught between them is her husband, human-rights lawyer Gerardo (Morgan Lewis), freshly appointed to a truth commission that promises, but cannot quite execute, justice.
Hayward delivers a career-defining performance.
Her Paulina swings between brittle humour and smouldering resentment yet never loses the vulnerability that makes her pursuit of justice understandable, if not entirely forgivable.
Lewis matches her intensity, tracing Gerardo’s moral whiplash with the anxious resolve of a man trapped between loyalty and the law.
Chivers walks the finest line of all, keeping us guessing to the end: is he villain or victim?
O’Connor uses Amara Ennis’s lighting like a camera zoom, closing in on faces as truth slips away and questions remain unanswered. In his director’s note, he asks, “Are we implicated in these terrible acts inflicted on individuals and nations? Is justice or reconciliation even possible after such events?”
These questions linger, alongside others raised by the play’s exploration of fractured marriage, imbalanced power and gender dynamics, and the personal cost of living in a society that has failed to reckon with its past.
What elevates this production is its resistance to easy answers.
Each time we think we know the truth, another possibility surfaces: a reminder that revenge pursued as justice ultimately dehumanises everyone.
The result is theatre that engages both the intellect and the emotions, making you think and feel deeply.
Death and the Maiden is not comfortable viewing, the violent and sexual themes rule it out for children, but for adults willing to wrestle with ambiguity it is gripping. Catch it at The Rondo until July 5.
Details: Opening on Friday, June 27, evening performances start at 7.30pm and will run through to July 5, with matinees on Sunday, June 29 and Saturday, July 5 at 2pm.
Tickets: https://bit.ly/3TFkPlt
