Monday 14 November 2011

Death and the Maiden


TNT

Thandie Newton’s transfer from screen to stage is reasonably competent rather than revelatory in Argentine-Chilean Ariel Dorfman’s tense, post-Pinochet three-hander from 1991.

Convinced that a random visitor is the Schubert-loving doctor who raped and tortured her 15 years earlier, her damaged, fragile Paulina is determined to extort her own personal revenge.

There’s decent support from Tom Goodman-Hill as her devoted husband (a human rights lawyer desperately trying to persuade her to seek a confession through official channels) and from Anthony Calf’s trussed up Roberto who, even at gunpoint, denies being her former tormentor.

But although Dorfman’s psychological thriller raises important and pertinent issues about the nature and possibility of justice, Jeremy Herrin’s revival, despite being engrossingly ambiguous, rarely plumbs its emotional potential.

Harold Pinter, Panton Street, SW1Y 4DN (
0844 871 7622) Tube: Piccadilly Circus Until January 21 (£10-£49.50) deathandthemaidentheplay.com


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