When Gerardo brings home Dr Miranda (Henare), who stopped to help him change a flat tyre, Paulina is convinced their visitor supervised her torture and rape many years earlier, often to the tune of Schubert's Death and the Maiden. While she did not see the man, Paulina claims to recognise Miranda's voice and mannerisms so she takes him captive to put him on trial and extract a confession.
Henare enjoys playing villains - "they make people aware of the possible pitfalls in life" - but points out it's never clear whether Miranda is guilty: "He's an educated man who understands philosophy and appreciates art and music but perhaps he has a streak in him of pure evil."
The story has strong meaning for Hotere, who was born in Brazil and came to New Zealand with her Kiwi husband 12 years ago.
"The first time I read this play, it reminded me of people my family had connections with in Chile who had had to leave the country and, even now, they still could not talk about it." She is acutely aware of the need to present Paulina with all her complexities and nuances intact.
"I find sometimes I hate her for what she's doing and sometimes I love her. I feel I need to do justice to this woman who represents those who have had no voice, who have been completely disempowered and are really struggling and hurting."
Newmarket Stage Company produces the play in association with human rights organisation Amnesty International NZ, which is marking its 50th anniversary in this country.
Activism manager Margaret Taylor hopes audiences will be provoked by what they see on stage and will support its Stop Torture Campaign. "While the laws [against torture] exist, in many countries they are not adhered to," she says.
The play was first performed at London's Royal Court Theatre in 1991. Dorfman says he wrote it as a "gift" to Chile when Pinochet's regime lost power in 1990. He wanted the play to consider how a society deals with the trauma of the past and moves forward.
Dorfman says "it is also sobering to realise that humanity has not managed to learn from the past, that torture has not been abolished, that justice is so rarely served".
Director John Callen says the events which spur on Paulina are repeated daily in a depressingly high number of countries but that the moral thriller provides no easy answers. Questions are raised about the effectiveness of torture in gaining confessions, state-sanctioned violence and whether Miranda is guilty or Paulina mad. Sympathies shift, moral ambiguity abounds and "the truth" is shown to be a slippery concept.
Amnesty's Margaret Taylor says the organisation's voice has always been amplified by contributions from the creative sector and it often relies on their right to freedom of expression to raise awareness of the need to support human rights.
