"Death and the Maiden'' explores the dilemma of remaining civilised in the face of incomprehensible abuse and cruel behaviour.

Dr. Barbara Jones is directing the Ariel Dorfman script, which opened on Friday night at Daylesford.

Set after the establishment of a fragile democracy, this play asks: how does a person live in a country with the same people who brutalised them -- when their kids romp around with your kids? "How do you cope? How do you get past it?'' she said.

"I found the play in the summer of 1994. I was chatting in Daylesford to John Zuill,'' she said, explaining he was the actor who went on to portray Richard III in the acclaimed Bermuda Festival production of that Shakespeare play. "I was berating him for not giving me any new scripts, and he gave me this title.

"Unless you travel a lot, and see a lot of new productions, it's very difficult to find new plays. When I'm away I always pick up new scripts and read them, but one does rely on word of mouth. In fact, one of the biggest problems we have at BMDS in putting on a balanced drama programme is finding the material.'' Set in a remote beach house, the play explores the marriage of young couple who are trying to come to terms with the brutal dictatorship which shook Chile before giving way to democracy.

Under the dictatorship the wife was raped and tortured, but the husband escaped -- indeed, he built a successful life under the regime. "There is a fragile truce between them at the beginning of the play,'' Dr. Jones explained.

"The husband gets a flat tyre, and a genial, friendly and pleasant country doctor gives him a lift. His wife believes he's the doctor who tortured her.

"We never know if he is, because she was blindfolded, and the question is, can you recognise someone by a voice after ten years? "Must she deal with the inhumane things the doctor did to her by doing something inhumane to him? If he's innocent, it's indefensible. If he's guilty, then how do you become more civilised? "The author increasingly explores this dilemma -- and the question of whether this is or is not the same man. And how does the married couple put their life back together and carry on?'' She explained the doctor and the wife are extremely passionate people -- he loves music, and she loves opera. "Her husband is a much more ordinary man -- he protested, but not enough to be arrested,'' she said.

"It's not so much the details of what happened, it was the fact she was brutalised, and how she has to move forward with it. In the end the tragic figure is the husband -- he's the real victim,'' Dr. Jones observed.

"This situation is portrayed without pulling any punches. All the issues are faced, but not resolved, so the audience can make their own decisions.'' The actors are Thomas Saunders, who plays the husband; John Thompson in the role of the doctor; and the wife is played by Venetia Lawless, a new BMDS member who is an experienced actress.

The play runs through Saturday. The curtains open at 8 p.m.

REBECCA ZUILL DR. BARBARA JONES -- No punches pulled.