DEATH AND THE MAIDEN

Dorfman’s play gives us a woman who recognizes, in a chance acquaintance of her husband, a man who tortured her during a fascist period in her country’s past, and she takes the opportunity to seek justice. The acting is basically strong, though John Kapelos’s performance is a bit stagy. But the play itself doesn’t transition well to audio. Crucial actions take place without speech, and we don’t know, at once, who has done what to whom, as a viewing audience would. The ending, which is ambiguous in any case, is here enigmatically so. The play has some powerful moments and much to say about issues of power, revenge, and justice, but the simple inability to see it leaves this program unsatisfying. W.M. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2010]