Abstract
Both plays deal with the devastating effects of the sociopolitical on the individual and point to the ways that factuality enters fiction, either to defictionalize it or refictionalize it. The characters in each play confront the past by seeking the truth, either to tell it or have it told to them. In Fugard's play, written in the middle o f a transition period, the confession is complete and this resolution places the play in the generally utopian world of protest theatre. Dorfman's play, written after the redemocratization of Chile, is grounded in uncertainties, half-truths and deceit. The confession is incomplete and thus there is no resolution or final harmony, placing this play within the operative dilemmas of the theatre of crisis.
Highlights
In the sense that both o f these plays deal with the devastating effects o f the sociopolitical on the individual, they point to the ways, in the words of Elrud Ibsch (1993:188), that “factuality enters into fiction” either to ‘defictionalize’ it - the case o f Death and the Maiden - or to ‘refictiona lize’ it - as in Playland
What I seek to demonstrate is that the unresolved crisis in Death and the Maiden roots this play in the urgency and complexity o f crisis ideology - a factual reality - whereas the resolution in Playland identifies it as a play which attempts a leap o f faith over the crisis ideology and into the promise o f a negotiated and happy-ended future - an utopian fiction
As was said at the beginning, both Playland and Death and the Maiden are examples o f plays dealing with crisis ideology
Summary
In the sense that both o f these plays deal with the devastating effects o f the sociopolitical on the individual, they point to the ways, in the words of Elrud Ibsch (1993:188), that “factuality enters into fiction” either to ‘defictionalize’ it - the case o f Death and the Maiden - or to ‘refictiona lize’ it - as in Playland. Truth and reconciliaton: Confronting the past in Death and the Maiden and Playland imaginary inheres in the plays’ characters, in their struggle to come to terms with their past experiences in the light o f a shifting present. The dilemmas they face with respect to the past place them in a state o f crisis, in the medical sense o f a ‘turning point’ between death and recovery. The centrality o f crisis in each play informs the following notes which focus on three constructions o f crisis: the characters as emblems o f crisis; the discourse o f confession as a sign o f resolved or unresolved crisis; and the role o f the audience in connecting with or remaining outside the representation o f crisis
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