SOURCE: Kauffmann, Stanley. “Assumptions.” New Republic 206, no. 19 (11 May 1992): 30-4.

In the following review, Kauffmann laments the lack of resolution in Death and the Maiden, noting that the American actors are “miscast” as South Americans.

Having cleared my throat by questioning the importance of opinions, let me offer my own highly arguable evaluations of the productions disputed by Rich and Richards, hoping that my views, however negative, will be an incentive rather than a deterrent to interest in the plays. I confess I didn't see a lot of virtue in Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden. The work is about a woman—from a “country [probably Chile] that has just given itself a democratic government after a long period of dictatorship”—who, with the help of her reluctant husband, turns the tables on the right-wing sadist she believes had raped and tortured her. I found the plot preposterous, resting...