DEATH AND THE MAIDEN

Ariel Dorfman

Death and the Maiden

Psychological thriller

Translated from English by Niklāvs Kurpnieks

Premiere - November 28, 2025

Performance in 1 act

We long for justice, but when does our desire for fairness turn into revenge? A young woman waits for her husband to come home from work, an influential lawyer. Nervous as an animal, strong-willed, wounded in the past, she longs for peace, yet cannot forget what happened. Marriage brought the two together during the harshest period of her life, and both hope to see light, tomorrow, and punishment for the brutal wrong done to her. But their understanding of the scale of punishment and the way it should be carried out differs radically.

As night falls, the husband returns and brings a kind stranger with him. The helpful doctor reminds the wife of her darkest days, and the two fates become ever more tightly intertwined. Three people who were never meant to meet cross paths, and a day and night unfold during which their lives will change irrevocably. The question of the inevitability of punishment and of a trial without witnesses strikes more precisely than any weapon.

Playwright Ariel Dorfman's tense play "Death and the Maiden" has been staged for more than thirty years on the world's most important stages, and in 1994 it was adapted for the screen by the master Roman Polanski. Dorfman wrote the play in the late 1980s, while he was in Chile and witnessed the country's heavy transition from Augusto Pinochet's authoritarian regime to democracy, yet the undeniably intense, explosive duel of personalities resonates just as powerfully and shockingly today, reminding us of the past's enduring presence in the present.

Cast: Madara Viļčuka (Paulina Salas), Toms Veličko (Gerardo Escobar), Gints Andžāns (Roberto Miranda)

Director - Niklāvs Kurpnieks, set and costume designer - Emīls Jansons, composer - Gustavs Smalkais-Francis, lighting designer - Aleksandrs Barinovs-Vipulis

Gunshots are heard in the performance!