A choice between justice and revenge in Death and the Maiden

Jesse Corbeil was born and raised in NDG, and though he left the neighborhood, he admits that he still comes back from time to time. “There’s a music store that I go to when I’m around.”

Corbeil was already familiar with the play, when Carolyn Fe, who produces the play and acts in it, proposed it to him. “It could be very dark, but I don’t see it as extremely dark, it’s definitely a drama, says Corbeil. The play may talk about torture, but these days it’s sometimes hard to take sides. “It’s hard to sometimes detect the good side nowadays,” Corbeil explains. “To someone sitting in Montreal, our side is good, but not to someone sitting elsewhere.”

Yet, he said the play is not political “on the surface”. “I hope people are going to think about these issues, but it’s not more important than presenting a good play.”

Death and the Maiden stars NDG resident William Ward, who plays Gerardo Escobar, the husband of Paulina Salas (Carolyn Fe). Although he grew up in the West Islands, William Ward decided to live in NDG, because “I really love the neighbourhood.” He still lives here today.

William Ward said the play asks whether it is “ever right to take justice in your own hands”. He added that the play “is very heavy, dramatically and emotionally”.

Gerardo Escobar is “a lawyer and a politician who really believes in the new justice but has loyalty and devotion to his wife”, said William Ward. The actor thinks that Escobar is probably the most conflicted character in the play.

Doctor Roberto Miranda, the man suspected of being the former torturer, is played by Sam Croitoru. Corbeil told him to keep his character status secret. “I specifically told him ‘do not tell me if he’s guilty or not’”. Even the other actors don’t know, said William Ward. “He knows whether he did it or not, but he’s not going to tell.”

The play is Altera Vitae’s third production. This time, the company partnered with RIVO (Intervention network for persons affected by organised violence). “RIVO helps people like Paulina get on with their lives and thrive…not forgetting the past but moving onto the future with pride”, said Carolyn Fe, who is Altera Vitae’s artistic director.

Death and the Maiden was written by Ariel Dorfman, a writer, university teacher and human rights activist. Born in Argentina in 1942, he had to flee to the USA two years later and then to Chile. He wrote fiction, often dealing with the horrors of tyranny and later on with the trials of exile. Death and the Maiden is his most famous play and Roman Polanski made a movie out of it in 1994, starring Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley. <@Ri>Death and the Maiden will be playing at MainLine Theatre from May 13 to 24.

Directed by Jesse Corbeil, the capable cast includes Sam Croitoru (Dr. Roberto Miranda), Carolyn Fe (Paulina Salas) and William Ward (Paulina’s husband, Gerardo Escobar).<@$p>