Cast

Synopsis

Set in a newly established Latin American democracy, this disturbing political drama tells of a few dark and dangerous hours in the life of a woman, her politician husband and a stranger who gives her husband a lift home. The woman is convinced that the stranger is the man who presided over her torture 15 years ago when she was a political prisoner. What happened to her is revealed in explicit language and detail as she seeks justice – or maybe revenge. Not for the fainthearted nor is this play suitable for children:

Directors Notes

The time is 1978 and the place is Nicaragua. The country is held in the grip of a totalitarian Dictatorship headed by the Despot family of Somoza.
A young man imprisoned in an army enforced curfew, chats happily with a young Nicaraguan woman. She speaks Spanish and has very little English. He speaks English and has no Spanish. At one point she produces a boys’ comic book to explain her story.

As she points to the victims of war lying dead on the pages of the comic she says ‘mamma, pappa, sista, brutha.’ Then pointing to the pictures of the soldiers she spits “Somoza, Somoza.

Their laughter stops. The boy lost for words.

This is not the start to this, nor any play. The boy was me. The girl…. her name sadly forgotten.

Perhaps it was this experience which struck such chords when I first read Death and the Maiden.’ It is a powerful and thought provoking play, produced here in its entirety, reflecting the horrors and shock found in countries under oppressive rule.

We hope our production will fascinate you as it has us, as the many layers are stripped back to reveal . the real, real truth’ whatever it might be.