Entertainment
21 June, 2025
Play is brutal and gripping
A GRIPPING psychological thriller is coming to the Rondo Theatre stage starting on Friday June 27, when ‘Death and the Maiden’ directed by Rondo’s Matt O’Connor gets audiences unravelled in paranoia and tension.
Written by the Argentine-Chilean-American playwright Ariel Dorfman, who was exiled from Chile himself after dictator Gustavo Pinochet took power in a coup, Death and the Maiden delves into the spikey themes of trauma, vengeance and morality tied to a nail-biting thriller which director Matt O’Connor aims to transmit.
The story follows a couple living in an unnamed country transitioning to democracy after a brutal dictatorship. The story centres on Paulina Salas, a former political prisoner traumatised by past torture and rape.
When her husband, Gerardo, brings home Dr Roberto Miranda – a stranger who helped him after a car breakdown – Paulina becomes convinced that Roberto was her torturer. She takes him captive to extract a confession, forcing a tense moral and psychological standoff.
“I’ve made sure to include trigger warnings but despite some of its subjects this story doesn’t have to be a deep think, you can enjoy it as a great psychological thriller,” he said.
“Death and the Maiden is about a couple who live at an isolated beach house and there’s been a regime change and their country is now a democracy.
“The husband is a human rights lawyer asked by the president to look into human rights abuses during the regime as he’s driving home one night and his car breaks down. He gets help from a guy, who he brings back to his house, and his wife – who was tortured during the regime – thinks that this man’s voice is the same as the guy who tortured her.
“On one level is a tense psychological thriller, is this the right person she’s got? Because she’s not 100 per cent sure since she was blindfolded when she was tortured, so is this the right person? Does she kill him?
“And on a deeper level you can reflect on how people get through trauma and how can a country retribute and offer reparation to victims.
“I think this is a great night out for people. You will be entertained and it’s a play you can really sink your teeth into, it doesn’t have to be a deep dive, just a great night out thriller.”
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