Death and the Maiden

Ariel Dorfman's 1991 award-winning drama is set in a country that ‘is probably Chile’ but ‘could be any country that has just departed from a dictatorship.’ Taking place in a remote beach house primarily on a single night and day, the play follows the actions of Paulina, who has been tortured by the previous regime and whose husband Gerardo, a human rights lawyer, has just been appointed to head a truth commission established by the new transitional government. When Gerardo’s car breaks down one night, he is picked up by the doctor Roberto Miranda. But in the voice of this good Samaritan, Gerardo's wife, Paulina Salas, thinks she recognizes another man—the one who raped and tortured her as she lay blindfolded in a military detention center years before.