Death and the Maiden
Written by Ariel Dorfman
Directed by Chay Yew
VG Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln (map)
thru July 20 | tickets: $30-$80 | more info
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Now extended through July 20th!
Oh’s haunting performance overcomes ‘Death’ ambiguities
Victory Gardens Theater presents
Death and the Maiden
Review by Clint May
A small story blipped up on the news last month. An 89-year-old German is facing extradition for alleged crimes committed while a guard at Auschwitz. In a statement applauding law enforcement efforts, Abraham H. Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said, “…while justice may be delayed, perpetrators of the Holocaust will be pursued to the end, no matter how long it takes.” Seventy years is a long time to wait for justice. For the ‘maiden’ at the center of Chilean-born author Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, only 15 years has passed since the atrocities in question. There is no statute of limitations—15, 70, 100 years—no time would dampen the pain and the urge to see the guilty brought forth to confess. Maiden goes further to explore in chilling detail the distortion of justice into revenge.
Of course the big news about this production is the centerpiece of Sandra Oh, who left “Grey’s Anatomy” to make this her first foray back onto the stage. Let’s get it out of the way for the breathless—she’s terrific. More on that later though.
In one of many interesting symbolic choices, director Chay Yew sets us not in the country as in the original but in what appears to be a beach house. A light sound of waves crashing against the shore never abates—a sound as implacable as Old Testament vengeance. The house belongs to an up-and-coming politician Gerardo (Raúl Castillo) and his wife Paulina (Sandra Oh). One night Gerardo gets a ride from a kindly kindly doctor, Roberto (John Judd) after a flat en route from the capital. He has just been appointed the head of a division that will seek to catalog and punish people for the crimes of the previous fascist regime in this unnamed country (it doesn’t take a leap of the imagination to see that this is based on Pinochet).
When the good doctor returns later that night to return the spare tire, Paulina hears his voice and believes she recognizes it as that of her torturer from 15 years prior. Her husband insists the good Samaritan spend the night, giving Paulina the opportunity to knock him out in his sleep and begin a harrowing interrogation of her own.
Unlike the 1994 movie, Dorfman’s script leaves the doctor’s guilt or innocence intentionally ambiguous. The audience must judge this man and the appropriateness of his treatment on the spare facts as given. There’s a lot of starting and stopping as we exit the drama for an exposition, which arrests the momentum of the building tension. Yew observes the concept of this one-person retribution from all facets, like a professor giving himself a Socratic inquisition. Admirable in theory but a difficult undertaking for a three-person set up. This—along with the amount of contrivances one must accept to believe the premise—means it’s up to the cast to do some heavy lifting. That’s not to say there aren’t some breathtaking moments (and dark humor) where Dorfman turns our own eye-for-an-eye righteousnesses against us (and who didn’t feel a certain primal glee watching “Inglourious Basterds”?) The script was adapted as an opera and it’s actually easy to imagine that being even more successful than a pure drama in masking the artifices under melodrama.
As the centerpiece, Oh is a gravity well of a presence, pulling us inexorably into her painful world. She must move from a broken shadow of herself to a complex inhabitation of granite resolve both quickly and believably. Her haunted eyes never quite leave her, and we remain sympathetic even as we question whether what she believes is true or not. Castillo (of HBO’s “Looking” fame) has the more difficult task of playing the ‘lawyer,’ a dramatically less interesting character. He’s about 10 years younger than his character and it’s a conspicuous difference, as Oh has been aged beyond her 42 years with the weight of her past. Judd is perfectly cast as the enigmatic center of their attentions, walking the fine line of ambiguity to keep us guessing as he treads the landmine of Paulina’s past.
One of the central feats of this production that will get some attention—not all of it good—is the rotating room at its center, designed by William Boles. It’s a nice invention if they can dampen the sound of it working. Everything gets a cinematic scope from its morphability, keeping us as focused as a cameraman as it frames and reframes the scenes; Jesse Klug’s lighting design is spectacularly atmospheric.
What Maiden lacks in dramatic electricity—that might have occurred if Yew had allowed this a more dynamic structure—it makes up for in the depth of its pensive profundity. There’s an ache at the end in a gun that may or may not fire that forces us to confront our own conscience as capable of something despicable. Some people may find the vagueness of certain details irritating. I actually don’t mind that as much—you can read many things into those final moments that will no doubt set up some speculation that will unveil more about your own attitudes towards clemency than Dorfman’s. To act as the human agency of karma is a presumption few, if any, can lay claim to, and one with scientifically dubious abilities to provide catharsis. The only way to end the dance of death is to leave the ballroom, however hard that may be.
Rating: ★★★
Death and the Maiden continues through July 13th July 20th at Victory Garden’s Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln (map), with performances Tuesdays at 7:30pm, Wednesdays 2pm and 7:30pm, Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays 4pm and 7:30pm, Sundays 3pm. Tickets are $30-$80, and are available by phone (773-871-3000) or online through their website (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at VictoryGardens.org. (Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission)
Photos by Michael Courier
artists
cast
Sandra Oh (Paulina), John Judd (Roberto), Raúl Castillo (Gerardo)
behind the scenes
Chay Yew (director), William Boles (set design), David Hyman (costume design), Jesse Klug (lighting design), Mikhail Fiksel (sound design), Justin Snyder (technical design), Jesse Gaffney (prop design), Ryan Bourque (fight choreographer), Tina M. Jach (stage manager), Tom Albright (master electrician), Scott Miller (production manager), Jenelle Cheyne (production manager intern), Mandy Stertz, Alison Perrone (production assistants), Carolyn Sullivan (costume assistant), Michael Courier (photos)
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