News

They Say: Death and the Maiden Reviews

The play still seems topical, for torture certainly hasn’t gone away since the piece was first performed, with the supposedly civilised West now tainted by some of its actions in the “war on terror”. As one watches the play, one also wonders how Libya will deal with those who collaborated with the Gaddafi regime. But as well as raising important issues, the play is also gripping, with much of the intensity of a first-rate thriller. The question of whether the man Paulina promptly ties up and threatens with a gun really is her torturer remains fascinatingly ambiguous, and the anguish of her husband, torn between love of his wife and the desire for the due process of law is highly dramatic too.

Verdict: *** Charles Spencer - The Telegraph (read the full review here)

Thandie Newton, making a West End debut at the Harold Pinter formerly known as the Comedy Theatre, has big boots to fill in Death and the Maiden, following Juliet Stevenson in the role of Paulina Salas, a rape and torture victim in Pinochet’s Chile who corners her supposed tormentor in a beach house shortly after her lawyer husband has been appointed to a government amnesty commission. So how does she do? She works hard and gets through it. But her voice is severely limited in range and colour and her emotional register underwhelming. Whereas Stevenson tore you apart, Newton presents a doll-like figure, wielding a handgun as big as her head, barking out her rage and sense of injustice with the pettiness of someone who’s been short-changed at a supermarket check-out.

Verdict: ** Michael Coveney - WhatsonStage (read the full review here)

Jeremy Herrin's production nevertheless generates considerable tension and marks the West End debut of film star Thandie Newton as Paulina. Even if her voice could do with more modulations of tone, she performs with great assurance, shifting from vengeful fury to sudden vulnerability with total plausibility. Tom Goodman-Hill as her husband also suggests very well the confusion of a liberal lawyer confronted by an act of unstoppable revenge. And Anthony Calf, who spends much of the evening tied to a chair, has just enough hint of moral indignation to raise questions about whether Roberto is a wronged victim.

Verdict: *** Michael Billington - The Guardian (read the full review here)