Hollywood star Thandie Newton comes to the London stage in Death And The Maiden, an intense tale of confession and revenge.

In Death And The Maiden, Newton plays a former political prisoner who suffered at the hands of a captor she never saw. Though she would not be able to point them out in an identity parade, her captor’s voice and mannerisms are etched into her memory. Years later she acts as judge and jury to a man she believes to have been her oppressor. In a new democracy, emerging from a long period of dictatorship, she struggles to find any form of reconciliation for the experiences she, and others, endured.

Ariel Dorfman’s play Death And The Maiden received its world premiere at the Royal Court in 1991, when Juliet Stevenson led the cast. Both the production and Stevenson transferred to the West End and went on to win Olivier Awards. The play also received a film adaptation, starring Sigourney Weaver and starring Roman Polanski.

Death And The Maiden star Newton is one of the hottest British properties in Hollywood, having appeared in films including the Oscar-winning Crash – for which she won a BAFTA – Mission Impossible II, The Pursuit Of Happyness, W, 2012 and Run Fat Boy Run.

Death And The Maiden is directed by Jeremy Herrin, the Deputy Artistic Director of London’s Royal Court, where he has directed productions including That Face, Tusk Tusk, The Vertical Hour, The Priory and The Heretic. The summer of 2011 saw him making his Shakespearean debut, directing Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare’s Globe.

For more about Death And The Maiden at the Harold Pinter theatre read the First Night Feature or the Big Interview with Ariel Dorfman.