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Ruth Butler as Paulina and Nick
Marston as Gerado
Death and the Maiden
Swan Theatre Amateur Company
Swan Theatre, Worcester
****
ARIEL Dorfmans play of remembered
violence and revenge never fails to stir an audience whatever the
setting.
Paulina Salas is the once tortured and abused
woman at the hands of a South American dictatorial regime.
Set some years later, she is now married to a
lawyer Gerardo Escobar who is on the verge of bringing that regime to
justice. However, one night a series of coincidences leads her to come
face to face with a man, Dr Roberto Miranda, whom she believes is her
prime tormentor.
She embarks upon a course of revenge that will
change all of their lives and one that leaves the audience with a series
of questions about morality and forgiveness.
It’s a play that calls for some serious
commitment in attitude from the performers as there is a fair amount of
strong language, aggressive physical action and extremes from cosy chats
to violent exchanges.
With that in mind, Ruth Butler plays Paulina and
it took her a while to enter into her character. Ruth seems like a very
nice lady and so the profanity she was called to deliver at times didn’t
quite sound right coming from her.
That fact is to her personal credit but as
Paulina is a woman who has been systematically tortured and raped, the
depth of her hatred for Dr Miranda was not immediately felt. As the play
went on she seemed more comfortable in the role, if that is a virtue,
and overall did a great job playing suc h
a broken character.
Nick Marston was Gerardo Paulina’s husband.
Gerardo is eventually called upon to be the go between his wife and Dr
Miranda and his act of pacifying her while coaxing Miranda into a
confession of his crimes needed some finesse. Nick managed to get the
balance just right from the almost condescending exchanges with his
wife’s obsession to then his own violent reaction when he thinks Miranda
is guilty of the crimes.
Ruth Butler and Chris Isaac as Dr Roberto Miranda
Dr Roberto Miranda was played by Chris Isaac who
also did a fine job managing the polarity of his character. Being placed
in some difficult physical situations throughout the play of being tied
and gagged cannot be easy as there is no way to fake it and his struggle
as the Escobar’s prisoner was convincing. There is part where we hear
his confession and the extent of his torturous acts yet it is a point
whereby the audience are often turned on hearing his regret. Chris
handled this well and overall this transition was nicely staged.
Director Marc Dugmore could not have asked more
from actors as in any sense of the word, it’s a play that contains some
powerful actions and requires performers to enter into some challenging
emotional territory. Each of the characters are wildly different and
just the delivery of Dorfmans words often go a long way into shocking
the audience into attention.
From an amateur performance perspective, it takes
some courage to take on such a complex play and STAC must be commended
for delivering that. Death and the Maiden remains though something of a
mountain for actors to climb and although it took a little time here, by
the end the trio had just about reached the summit. To 18-06-16
Jeff Grant
15-06-16
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