The Other Room, Cardiff
Tue 31 Oct – Fri 10 Nov
The Olivier Award-winning play The Death and the Maiden has been bought back to life by Cardiff based theatre company Fio. The play follows the compelling story of Paulina Salas; in the time of a brutal dictatorship, Paulina was taken as a political prisoner in an unnamed Latin American Country. During her time of incarceration, Paulina’s captors, led by a sadistic doctor whose face remained undisclosed, raped her repeatedly whilst the orchestrating doctor played Schubert’s composition of Death and the Maiden, hence the title of the play.
Years later after the dictatorship has collapsed, Paulina and her husband Gerardo live in an isolated house, with the story of her capture remaining as a scarring element of her past, until a stranger causes her to question her sanity. Fio works across the UK and internationally, bringing world class socio-political stories to local audiences; hence why after the success of their most recent project The Mountaintop, they have revived this 1990 masterpiece by Ariel Dorfman.
The play asks audiences to begin a dialogue of whether our own truths can be a result of self-bias, or as a coping mechanism with an action we have performed. In addition, it asks the pressing question of whether democracy truly fixes a dictatorship – despite living in a stable world, Paulina still struggles with the echoes of the rigorous regime. The psychological thriller causes the audience to question the validity of Paulina’s story, the motives of the doctor and whether justice was ever truly served. They must allow themselves to question the nature of truth and honesty, whether there is only one truth, and if there is, whose truth is it?
Hosted in Cardiff’s pub theatre, the small space offers an especially intimate performance of the psychological creation. The venue also hosts a ‘pay what you can’ showing of the play on Halloween, allowing a rare accessibility for all who wish to enjoy the theatre, right in the centre of Cardiff.
Tickets £5 – £12. Info: 02921 280189 / www.otherroomtheatre.com
words CORRIE DAVID