Rhubarb Theatre Co. to present 'Death and the Maiden'

Rhubarb Theater Company presents “Death and the Maiden” by Ariel Dorfman, acclaimed Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, Dorfman has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina since 1985 and has written and spoken prolifically on the horrors of tyranny.

Maintaining their longtime focus on tolerance and diversity in slice-of-life situations, Rhubarb now offers Nashville audiences this most famous work by Dorfman, a former cultural advisor to Chilean president Salvador Allende, forced to leave Chile in 1973 after the coup by General Pinochet that led to Allende’s death.

“You guys know I love ‘ugly beauty’ and this is the perfect show to open Rhubarb’s 10th season,” says Artistic Director Trish Crist. “I’ve been obsessed with this play since I saw it on Broadway 23 years ago—it was my first Broadway play and I sat in the very last row of the theater, on a discount ticket, of course. That production starred Glenn Close, Richard Dreyfuss, and Gene Hackman, and while I don’t remember any specifics of their production or performances, I still feel in my heart and gut the emotional and psychological impact of the experience. This piece is the real deal in vivid story-telling about what humans do to each other.”

“Death and the Maiden” is a three-person play that describes the encounter of a former torture victim with a man she believes tortured her many years earlier, plumbing the depths of all that psychologically and viscerally motivates devotion to a cause or person, response to human rights violations, self-doubt, self-trust, and revenge. It was made into a film in 1994 by Roman Polanski starring Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley.

The production is directed by Heather Webber and features Phil Brady and Trish Crist as a loving husband and wife who’ve survived the unthinkable, and Bakari King as the stranger who enters their lives.

All tickets are $12. Reservations and information are available at (615) 397-7820 or rhubarbnashville@gmail.com.

Performances occur at two locations:

There are three performances at The Darkhorse Theater located 4610 Charlotte Avenue in Nashville: 7:30 pm on Thursday, August 23, Friday, August 24, and Saturday, August 25, 2012.

There is one additional performance at Belmont University’s Black Box Theater located on Compton Avenue in Nashville behind the Troutt Theater on Belmont Boulevard on Friday, August 31. This final performance is open to the public as part of Nashville’s First Night Honors festivities. This final performance offers a pay-what-you-can ticket price on August 31 and begins at 7:30 pm.