"Three characters. Two days. One house."

Death and the Maiden

South Wales Theatre Collective

Directed by Jamie Lee

Venue: Chapter Arts Studio

Reviewed by Chelsey Gillard

Paulina Salas, victim of torture and rape, unexpectedly comes face to face with the man she believes led the ordeal. She sees a sick, sadistic man who willingly worked for the old totalitarian government. The audience sees a kind natured doctor, a Good Samaritan who came to Paulina’s husband’s rescue when he had neither a spare tyre nor car jack.

Set in a country bursting with political unrest where a dictator has just been overthrown and a democracy is trying to take hold, Paulina’s husband Gerado Escobar has just been chosen by the Prime Minister to serve as part of a truth and reconciliation committee, who aim to help those affected by the atrocities committed by the previous regime. He is a voice of reason when Paulina takes Dr Roberto Miranda hostage in her home saying she recognises his voice, smell and feel of his skin.

Sarah Louise Tyler is good as the paranoid “maiden”; she has a look of real psychosis in her eyes. Unfortunately as was true with all the characters, she was pretty two dimensional, her voice was always shouty and intense, there were moments were a softer, more menacing voice would have been much more effective. It seemed that she was more upset that she could no longer listen to Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” (as the Dr played this when the attacks were being carried out), than she was about the loss of her dignity and self confidence.

Lauurence Patrick as Escobar was reminiscent of Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia; charming, husky but sometimes looked lost. He was totally believable as a lawyer with political ambition, never completely taking sides in the conflict and trying to keep the tension low. One unforgivable moment was during Miranda’s “confession” scene, the lights were dimmed, the ceiling fan creating atmospheric shadows and the acting was superb. But Patrick seemed to have no regard for this as he struck the set, he could not have made more noise clinking china together and it really spoiled the otherwise superb scene.

By far, the stand out performance was by Gary Knowles as Doctor Roberto Miranda. He was sensitive to the intentional ambiguity of the script; even after the bows the audience were wondering was he the culprit of the systematic torture? He seemed very calm and collected considering the circumstances but as a doctor he is probably used to high pressure situations and if he was guilty that last thing he would want to do was seem agitated. Once again it was the littlest things that stopped this production being great; Paulina held him captive by strapping him to a chair with parcel tape, he was a larger man with an obvious amount of strength – if he wanted to he could easily have broken his bonds and escaped!

The South Wales Theatre Collective uses new or recent graduates of technical, design and stage management courses, they certainly must have got their hands on some of the best. The stage was incredible, the audience were uncomfortable guests in Paulina’s house, split levels separated a patio, kitchen and bedroom that were used effectively to give the illusion of private moments and secrecy. The lighting really complemented it, classily showing changes in scenes and the passing of time. As I mentioned earlier the “confession” scene was intelligently put together to show vulnerability and gave real weight to the words being spoken. 

Sadly the sound effects let the technical side down. Over the top car revs and awkward toilet sound effects reminded that you were sat in a theatre in Cardiff. Violin soloist Kenon Mann is obviously a superbly talented musician and mostly his accompaniment added depth to the production but occasional clichéd, high pitched, screechy noises made it seem more like a cheap horror flick.

Unfortunately the production lacked a real grounding, it was obvious it was set somewhere in South America but exactly where was uncertain. With all the political unrest in places such as Libya the 20 year old script still has real resonance but it didn’t quite hit the mark. This lack of background was obvious in the characters; I feel if you were to interrogate the cast in character they wouldn’t be able to answer simple questions about their past. There were also moments where the script seemed darkly comic but this wasn’t exploited at all. Perhaps more could have been done to familiarise both cast and audience with the world they were part of for that two hours.