Posted February 28, 2008
By VivaLaGonzo

What if you had a chance for vengeance against the person who made your life a living hell? Would you bury the hatchet or kill with it? The answers to these questions lie beneath shades of moral ambiguity. “Death and the Maiden” follows Paulina Escobar, who was raped and tortured as a political prisoner under an oppressive regime. Years later, a series of fateful events bring Paulina face-to-face with her shadowy captor. Or so she thinks. She never saw the face of the man most responsible for her agony, but she is convinced that the man before her is the culprit. Paulina’s husband is skeptical of her conviction and serves as the alleged torturer’s lawyer in a high-tension trial for his life. Ariel Dorfman, who escaped Augusto Pinochet’s violent dictatorship in Chile, penned the play. Dorman’s exposure to Pinochet’s countless human rights abuses like torture and indefinite detention of political prisoners underscore the play with a tragic sense of reality.

The Clemson Players Feb. 28-29 Brooks Center Theater Clemson, SC 8 p.m. (864) 656-7787 www.clemson.edu/brooks