Three powerful political plays in one volume – with a substantial introduction by Ariel Dorman.
In Death and the Maiden, a woman seeks revenge when the man she believes to have been her torturer happens to re-enter her life. A classic of 20th-century theatre, the play ran for a year in the West End, was a hit on Broadway and was filmed by Roman Polanski.
In Reader, first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in July 1995, a censor discovers that the subversive novel he is about to ban is describing his own life and hinting that a terrible fate awaits his son. He must hunt down the author before it comes true…
Widows is a smouldering political allegory about a political protest in a country ruled by a military junta, written in collaboration with Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America. It was first staged by the Traverse Theatre Company at the Cambridge Arts Theatre in March 1997.
‘A terrifying moral thriller which combines brilliant theatricality with clear thought and fierce compassion’
— Sunday Times on ‘Death and the Maiden’
‘A veritable hall of mirrors: a mixture of Kafka and Pirandello… a work of obvious integrity and passion’
— Guardian on ‘Reader’
‘A remarkable attempt to dramatise in a semi-mythical way the consequences of recent appalling abuses of human rights’
— Independent on Sunday on ‘Widows’
